Malleability of Preferences for Honesty
通过随机将儿童纳入为期一年的导师计划，研究社会环境影响诚实偏好的因果证据，发现计划结束约四年后受辅导儿童显著更诚实。
Abstract Reporting private information is a key part of economic decision-making. A recent literature has found that many people have a preference for honest reporting, contrary to usual economic assumptions. In this paper, we investigate whether preferences for honesty are malleable and what determines them. We experimentally measure preferences for honesty in a sample of children. As our main result, we provide causal evidence on the effect of the social environment by randomly enrolling children in a year-long mentoring programme. We find that, about four years after the end of the programme, mentored children are significantly more honest.