The heritability of moral standards for everyday dishonesty

Previous research on the acceptability of dishonest actions has focused on the role of social norms and internal reward mechanisms. Using a sample of over 2000 Swedish adult twins, this manuscript examines whether there exists another source that is driving differences in perceptions of the acceptability of dishonest actions: genetic variation. We find that much of the variation in perceptions of the acceptability of dishonest actions is attributable to genetic variation between individuals.

[1]  J. Greenberg.  Employee Theft as a Reaction to Underpayment Inequity: The Hidden Cost of Pay Cuts , 1990 .

[2]  Maurice E. Schweitzer,et al.  Stretching the Truth: Elastic Justification and Motivated Communication of Uncertain Information , 2006 .

[3]  Dan R. Dalton,et al.  Base rate for employee theft: Convergence of multiple methods. , 1997 .

[4]  M. Johannesson,et al.  Heritability of ultimatum game responder behavior , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[5]  Rachel T. A. Croson,et al.  Gender Differences in Preferences , 2009 .

[6]  R. Kessler,et al.  The prediction of major depression in women: toward an integrated etiologic model. , 1993, The American journal of psychiatry.

[7]  Bo Rothstein.  Just Institutions Matter: The Moral and Political Logic of the Universal Welfare State , 1998 .

[8]  A. Goldberger,et al.  Twin studies in behavioral research: a skeptical view. , 2002, Theoretical population biology.

[9]  R. Plomin.  The role of inheritance in behavior. , 1990, Science.

[10]  James H. Fowler,et al.  Heritability of cooperative behavior in the trust game , 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[11]  Uri Gneezy,et al.  Deception: The Role of Consequences , 2005 .

[12]  E. Fehr,et al.  Does Fairness Prevent Market Clearing? An Experimental Investigation , 1993 .

[13]  Magnus Johannesson,et al.  Genetic Variation in Financial Decision Making , 2009 .

[14]  Sandra Scarr,et al.  Twin method: Defense of a critical assumption , 1979, Behavior genetics.

[15]  Kenneth S Kendler,et al.  Age-Related Changes in Heritability of Behavioral Phenotypes Over Adolescence and Young Adulthood: A Meta-Analysis , 2007, Twin Research and Human Genetics.

[16]  J. Tirole,et al.  Identity, morals, and taboos: beliefs as assets. , 2011, The quarterly journal of economics.

[17]  N L Segal,et al.  “Sources of Human Psychological Differences: The Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart” (1990), by , 2018 .

[18]  Magnus Johannesson,et al.  Genetic Variation in Preferences for Giving and Risk Taking , 2009 .

[19]  S. Zeger,et al.  Longitudinal data analysis using generalized linear models , 1986 .

[20]  C. Manski.  Genes, Eyeglasses, and Social Policy , 2011 .

[21]  Jonathan P. Beauchamp,et al.  The Promises and Pitfalls of Genoeconomics* , 2012, Annual review of economics.

[22]  Eric Turkheimer,et al.  Three Laws of Behavior Genetics and What They Mean , 2000 .

[23]  M. Dufwenberg,et al.  Working Papers in Economics and Statistics Deception through Telling the Truth?! Experimental Evidence from Individuals and Teams Deception through Telling the Truth?! Experimental Evidence from Individuals and Teams , 2022 .

[24]  Nina Mazar,et al.  Greasing the Palm , 2011, Psychological science.

[25]  N. Stanietsky,et al.  The interaction of TIGIT with PVR and PVRL2 inhibits human NK cell cytotoxicity , 2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[26]  J. Henrich,et al.  Markets, Religion, Community Size, and the Evolution of Fairness and Punishment , 2010, Science.

[27]  M. Johannesson,et al.  Gender differences in deception , 2008 .

[28]  Riccardo Pelizzo.  the costs of corruption , 2014 .

[29]  S. Scarr,et al.  Environmental bias in twin studies. , 1968, Eugenics quarterly.

[30]  M. Tsuang,et al.  Genetic and environmental influences on posttraumatic stress disorder, alcohol and drug dependence in twin pairs. , 2000, Drug and alcohol dependence.

[31]  Nina Mazar,et al.  The Dishonesty of Honest People: A Theory of Self-Concept Maintenance , 2008 .