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anonymity
You are more likely to lie when you feel anonymous.
Deindividuation reduces the internalized social norms that typically constrain honesty.
In studies involving dimmed lights or masks, participants cheated significantly more on tasks to earn extra money. Anonymity masks the surveillance of social standards, allowing the brain to bypass self-regulatory mechanisms designed to maintain reputation.
You are only as moral as the people watching you.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Zhong, Bohns, and Gino, 2010, Psychological Science
- What the check found
- The cited study, 'Good Lamps Are the Best Police: Darkness Increases Dishonesty and Self-Interested Behavior' (2010), confirms both the findings regarding darkness/masks and the mechanism of perceived anonymity.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.