Abstract

Dishonest behaviors like tax evasion impose significant societal costs. Ex-ante honesty oaths—commitments to honesty before action—have been proposed as interventions, but their effectiveness is debated. In a mega-study with 21,506 UK and US participants playing an incentivized tax evasion game, we tested 21 honesty oaths and a no-oath condition. Ten oaths significantly improved tax compliance by 4.5 to 8.5 percentage points, with the best nearly halving evasion. Limited evidence for moderators was found. Experts and laypeople failed to predict the most effective oaths. Overall, honesty oaths can reduce dishonesty, but effectiveness varies by content.

Short bio

Panagiotis Mitkidis is a Professor of Psychology and Business Ethics at Aarhus University, Denmark, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Integrative Business Psychology. Currently he is an AIAS-PIREAU theme group fellow at AIAS. His research delves into diverse aspects of human behavior, encompassing prosocial elements such as trust, cooperation, and commitment, alongside antisocial aspects such as corruption, discrimination, and inequality, examining these phenomena at both individual and organizational levels.

What is an AIAS Seminar?

The AIAS Seminar Series is a session of seminars held by the AIAS fellows, AIAS Visiting or Tandem Fellows or by other speakers proposed by the fellows. In each seminar, a fellow will present and discuss her/his current research and work-in-progress to an interdisciplinary audience for 30 minutes, closing off with 30 minutes for questions, comments and discussion.

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