Citation
Shu, L., Mazar, N., Gino, F., Ariely, D., & Bazerman, M. (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.
Highlights
- The study’s objective was to examine whether placing a signature line at the beginning of a form, rather than at the end, which is more common, discouraged dishonesty.
- The authors conducted three separate randomized experiments. In experiments 1 and 2, individuals completed math puzzles and were asked to report the number of puzzles they completed, as well as their expenses for traveling to the site where the experiment was conducted. In experiment 3, individuals acquiring a new car insurance policy were asked to report their current cars’ odometer readings on an insurance form. In each experiment, individuals were randomly assigned either to receive a form requiring a signature at the top, or to receive a form requiring a signature at the bottom.
- The study found that, across the three experiments, participants who signed at the top of the form were less likely to respond dishonestly than participants who signed the form at the bottom or did not sign the form at all.
- The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is high because it was based on three well-implemented randomized controlled trials. This means we are confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the placement of the signature line on the forms, and not to other factors.
Features of the Study
The authors conducted three experiments, two in a laboratory setting and one in the field. In experiments 1 and 2, university students and employees completed math puzzles and then reported on a form designed to look like a typical tax form how many they completed. Participants received a cash incentive for each puzzle that they reported completing. They also reported their time and commuting costs for traveling to the lab and were reimbursed for some of these expenses.
In experiment 1, 101 individuals were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (1) tax form with a signature line at the top; (2) tax form with a signature line at the bottom; or (3) tax form with no signature line. In experiment 2, 60 individuals were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (1) tax form with a signature line at the top, or (2) tax form with a signature line at the bottom.
In experiments 1 and 2, the authors compared the actual number of completed puzzles and the number of puzzles that individuals reported completing on the tax form. The authors considered any difference between the actual and reported number of puzzles as a result of dishonesty. They also compared the average reported expenses across experimental groups; they assumed that if one group reported higher expenses than the other, resulting in higher reimbursement rates, that group was dishonestly inflating their actual expenses.
In the third experiment, 13,488 existing car insurance customers who were acquiring a new car insurance policy had to report current odometer readings of all vehicles under the existing policy. The authors randomly assigned individuals to either sign next to the statement: “I promise that the information I am providing is true” on the top of the form or on bottom of the form. Previously reported odometer readings for the cars (from insurance records) were subtracted from the newly-reported odometer readings to calculate average mileage driven per car, which was then compared with the group that signed the statement at the top of the form and the group that signed the statement at the bottom of the form. The authors assumed that if one group reported lower average mileage than the other, this indicated the group was dishonestly misreporting its mileage.
Findings
- The study found that, across the three experiments, participants who signed at the top of the form were less likely to respond dishonestly than participants who signed the form at the bottom or did not sign the form at all.
- In experiments 1 and 2, participants who signed at the top of the form were less likely to misreport the number of completed math puzzles than participants who signed the form at the bottom or did not sign the form at all. They also reported lower expenses (and, hence, lower reimbursement rates) than participants who signed the form at the bottom or did not sign the form at all.
- In experiment 3, participants who signed at the top of the form reported driving more average miles per car than participants who signed the form at the bottom.
Considerations for Interpreting the Findings
The authors did not explicitly provide information to calculate attrition. However, the authors conducted experiments 1 and 2 in a laboratory setting, implying no attrition. For experiment 3, the authors used an administrative database to compare mileage reported on the experimental form to previous mileage; the analysis reported by the authors suggests low attrition.
Causal Evidence Rating
The quality of causal evidence presented in this report is high because it was based on three well-implemented randomized controlled trials. This means we are confident that the estimated effects are attributable to the placement of the signature line on the forms, and not to other factors.