The latest Business Week includes interesting information on cheating (the third item here) from Dan Ariely, the Duke professor who wrote the book Predictably Irrattional:
He has found that people are more likely to cheat if they are a step removed from the cash payoff. In one experiment, he paid subjects (whom he allowed to report their own scores) for correctly solving math problems?some in cash, some in tokens to be redeemed across the room. The second group exaggerated their scores twice as much as the first. Similarly, in studies of real-life expense reports, he found managers pad expenses more when their assistants compile the report. Such detachment, Ariely says, may be what’s involved “when you backdate a stock option.”
Perhaps he can study the impact of frequenting IHOP bathrooms.
