Shu et al., 2012: Commiting to provide true information increased car mileage disclosed, payments, and fairness among policy owners
Reference:
Shu, L. L., Mazar, N., Gino, F., Ariely, D., & Bazerman, M. H. (2012). Signing at the beginning makes ethics salient and decreases dishonest self-reports in comparison to signing at the end. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(38), 15197-15200.
Download PDFSummary:
Policy owners received a car insurance form on which to report the number of miles they had driven in the previous year. Those for whom the signature line (“I promise that the information I am providing is true”) was at the top rather than the bottom disclosed having driven 10% more miles (26,098 vs. 23,671), increasing payments and promoting fairness.
Psychological Process:
What Desired Meaning is At Stake?
What is the Person Trying to Understand?
To See the Self as AdequateApproach to Desired Meaning
What about it?
Link Self-Integrity to a Behavior or Attitude to Motivate Positive ChangePsychological Question Addressed
Did I say I would do it?Psychological Process 2:
Psychological Process 3:
Heading
Did I say I would do it?Social Area:
Civic behavior
Intervention Technique:
Increasing commitment through action, pre-commitment