Time pressure and honesty in a deception game

TL;DR

This study investigates how time pressure influences honesty in a deception game, finding that individuals tend to be more honest when under time constraints, challenging previous mixed results.

Contribution

It provides robust evidence that time pressure increases honesty in deception games, addressing confounds in prior research.

Findings

People are more honest under time pressure

Results are not driven by confounds present in earlier studies

Large sample size (N=1,389) supports findings

Abstract

Previous experiments have found mixed results on whether honesty is intuitive or requires deliberation. Here we add to this literature by building on prior work of Capraro (2017). We report a large study (N=1,389) manipulating time pressure vs time delay in a deception game. We find that, in this setting, people are more honest under time pressure, and that this result is not driven by confounds present in earlier work.