Dissonance and the honor system: extending the severity of threat phenomenon

In this field experiment, the authors extended the severe threat of punishment paradigm to the honor system. Participants (N = 80) came from two small colleges that differ in the severity of threats of punishment for honor code violations. The authors placed participants in situations in which they came upon money that did not belong to them, in both public and private settings. Using the framework of insufficient justification, the authors hypothesized that participants from the military school, who face a severe threat of punishment for honor code violations, would be less likely to pick up the money in the public setting than in the private setting. The authors predicted that, in contrast, at the nonmilitary college, where students face only a mild threat of punishment for honor code violations, there would be no difference in how participants behaved across the two settings. The results supported both hypotheses. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for understanding and improving the nature of the punishment structure for honor systems.