Honesty, Ability, Norm, and Socioeconomic Status: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh

In a real effort task experiment, we study the (dis)honesty of undergraduate students in Bangladesh. Consistent with earlier studies, when they self-report their performance, a significant fraction of students cheats to varying degrees. We find that an individual’s own ability, as well as social norms in terms of beliefs about peers’ behavior, are the two most important factors influencing (dis)honesty in our experiment. In particular, a higher actual performance in the real effort task reduces both the likelihood and extent of cheating, while the belief that peers are cheating increases both the likelihood and extent of cheating. Additionally, a lower perceived fear of detection increases the extent of cheating, but does not increase the likelihood of cheating. Among the two most important indicators of socioeconomic status that we considered, such as parents’ education and income, only mother’s level of education shows a significant negative effect on the likelihood of cheating.