Children and cheating: A field experiment with individuals and teams

This thesis presents a field experiment drawing interferences on the lying be- havioural patterns among grammar school students. Students were filling in non-related questionnaire for which they were rewarded. They rolled a dice and for a corresponding number on a dice they obtained a certain number of sweets. Students were not controlled therefore they could choose what num- ber to report. The experiment included one treatment for individuals and two treatments for groups. The analysis shows that a certain fraction of students cheated but they often did not exploit the possibility of cheating maximally. Older students cheated more in comparison with younger students and younger students deceived more in groups. Last but not least, dishonesty in groups may also hinge on the family background, namely on the number of siblings. The model of self-concept maintenance explains the cheating patterns observed in our experiment best among all discussed models.