Empirically Measuring Honesty?

Its not in depth enough to be conclusive or to what level of dishonesty. But yes, the dishonesty is diffidently there.

If there were more questions that were more in depth, that would help.

"The problem with internet quotes is that you can't always depend on their accuracy" -Abraham Lincoln, 1864.

So, even 'Honest Abe' would be skeptical of these study results.

Directly from the article:

Volkswagen recently admitted its cars had cheated on emissions tests. The news damaged the company, and caused soul-searching in Germany. Would the country lose its valuable reputation for reliable engineering?

So, it was the cars that cheated! Way to shift blame!

Sorry, I thought that was funny.

OK, back to the topic... control groups, and how they are directed would be very crucial in this case.

I liked the one where they would place a 'lost wallet' in a public place with cash, ID, sometimes family pics and such and see what got returned. I believe the study authors did these experiments in a number of different countries. I don't recall what the specific results were but it was an interesting study. I do recall that wallets with family pictures tended to get returned a higher percentage of time versus those without pictures.

I've seen similar things like that also. Some later to be revealed to be set up, some not.

There are also set-up as different situations... one thing came to mind. They set-up a child (about 15 years of age next to a homeless guy (a ex-military veteran?) (Hopefully it wasn't staged) that was pandering (while not being intrusive, just a sign.

To see how who would get more attention and money.

The kid was just racking in the cash, and the vet really looked distraught. while everyone was giving to the kid, they walked past the vet and looked down on him with distain.

The vet excused himself and actually asked the kid to watch his things (that's strange if you ask me) and the vet returned with a pizza and actually shared it with the kid.

They broke the off 'social test' off right there and asked the vet why he did that.

Everyone SHOULD be a skeptic. We'd be much better off if 'we' were. A few grains of salt can go a LONG way.

agreed.

I can confirm I lost my wallet and it was returned because of the children photos it carried but all the money was kidnapped as "reward" for the honest person.

if the test were performed while the participant was hooked up to a lie detector and a Tazer the results would carry some validity

You read about it on the internet and you want an opinion from members here, on the internet?

There is a fundamental flaw in you thinking.

That's like asking your small child if they saw their equally small sibling eat the last cookie.

This is ridiculous, first of all I don't think honesty is a real thing, it's more a concept....Now there is honor, and there are extenuating circumstances that dictate necessity....For instance would you call a man that exceeded the speed limit without getting caught, and then failed to report himself to the police as being dishonest?...Is honesty even dictated according to law....after all if I sell beans for 10% more than the store down the street, am I being dishonest to not inform you of this at the time of your purchase? No there's too much ambiguity in the law for that to dictate honesty...But I think most of us recognize an honorable man, he's a man of his word...

Well...what would Ned Flanders do???

https://youtu.be/TdGtrvCaras?t=40

"

THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET YOU ACT, LIKE THERE WAS SOME SORT OF RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED:

"Yes. But people have got to believe that or what's the point?"

MY POINT EXACTLY.

"

- Conversation between DEATH and Susan Sto Helit, his granddaughter⁽¹⁾, from the Terry Pratchet novel Hogfather.

Notes:

1. Long story.