Open AccessHONESTY ON THE STREETS: A FIELD STUDY ON NEWSPAPER PURCHASING
Author(s) -
Pruckner Gerald J.,
Sausgruber Rupert
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of the european economic association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.792
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1542-4774
pISSN - 1542-4766
DOI - 10.1111/jeea.12016
Subject(s) - honesty , newspaper , honor , purchasing , payment , advertising , norm (philosophy) , field (mathematics) , social psychology , psychology , economics , business , marketing , political science , law , internet privacy , computer science , mathematics , pure mathematics , finance
Abstract Many publishers use an honor system for selling newspapers in the street. We conducted a field experiment to study honesty in this market, finding that a moral reminder increases the level of honesty in payments, whereas the same message has no effect on whether one is honest. Reminding customers of the legal norm has no effect. We argue that these results are consistent with a preference for honesty, based on an internalized social norm. Auxiliary evidence suggests that the moral message remains effective when it is posted for longer periods, and even when it is removed again.