Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 4, 2025

An Experimental Analysis of Children's Ability to Provide a False Report about a Crime
Published on: May 3, 2016
Cognitive control and dishonesty
Sebastian P H Speer1, Ale Smidts2, Maarten A S Boksem2
1Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Social Brain Lab, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Dishonesty is ubiquitous and imposes substantial financial and social burdens on society. Intuitively, dishonesty results from a failure of willpower to control selfish behavior. However, recent research suggests that the role of cognitive control in dishonesty is more complex. We review evidence that cognitive control is not needed to be honest or dishonest per se, but that it depends on individual differences in what we call one's 'moral default': for those who are prone to dishonesty, cognitive control indeed aids in being honest, but for those who are already generally honest, cognitive control may help them cheat to occasionally profit from small acts of dishonesty. Thus, the role of cognitive control in (dis)honesty is to override the moral default.
Related Concept Videos
Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping
Cognitive Dissonance
Beck's Cognitive Therapy
Arbitrary Inference
Arbitrary inference involves making conclusions without sufficient...
Self-Discrepancy Theory
Fundamental Attribution Error
Revisionist Views of Adolescent and Adult Cognition

