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Publications
Publications (80)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly becomes an indispensable advisor. New ethical concerns arise if AI persuades people to behave dishonestly. In an experiment, we study how AI advice (generated by a Natural-Language-Processing algorithm) affects (dis)honesty, compare it to equivalent human advice, and test whether transparency about advice s...
The increasing prevalence of image-altering filters on social media and video conferencing technologies has raised concerns about the ethical and psychological implications of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to manipulate our perception of others. In this study, we specifically investigate the potential impact of blur filters, a type of appearan...
The rapid development of AI-mediated communication technologies (AICTs), which are digital tools that use AI to augment interpersonal messages, has raised concerns about the future of interpersonal trust and prompted discussions about disclosure and uptake. This paper contributes to this discussion by assessing perceptions about the acceptability a...
Bribery, a grand global challenge, often occurs across national jurisdictions. Behavioral research studying bribery to inform anticorruption interventions, however, has merely examined bribery within single nations. Here, we report online experiments and provide insights into crossnational bribery. We ran a pilot study (across three nations) and a...
Touch is the primary way people communicate intimacy in romantic relationships, and affectionate touch behaviors such as stroking, hugging and kissing are universally observed in partnerships all over the world. Here, we explored the association of love and affectionate touch behaviors in romantic partnerships in two studies comprising 7880 partici...
Recent cross-cultural and neuro-hormonal investigations have suggested that love is a near universal phenomenon that has a biological background. Therefore, the remaining important question is not whether love exists worldwide but which cultural, social, or environmental factors influence experiences and expressions of love. In the present study, w...
Digital technologies offer new communicative affordances to fight corruption. Bottom-up efforts increasingly use algorithmic tools, i.e., bots, to automate corruption reporting on social media platforms. This study investigates how to design a bot to effectively and responsibly mobilize people for collective action against corruption. In a large (n...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly becomes an indispensable advisor. New ethical concerns arise if AI persuades people to behave dishonestly. In an experiment, we study how AI advice (generated by a Natural-Language-Processing algorithm) affects (dis)honesty, compare it to equivalent human advice, and test whether transparency about advice s...
People are not very good at detecting lies, which may explain why they refrain from accusing others of lying, given the social costs attached to false accusations - both for the accuser and the accused. Here we consider how this social balance might be disrupted by the availability of lie-detection algorithms powered by Artificial Intelligence. Wil...
Are shorter or more accessible anti-bribery Policies more effective? We did a field experiment amongst over 1200 employees at a large tech company. We found that the policies (long, short or infographics) had no significant effect on employee knowledge of appropriate norms, even when compared to a fourth group that received no information about the...
Report summarizes how Artificial Intelligence can be a new tool for corrupt practices and what can be done to meet that emerging risk.
There is growing interest in the field of Cooperative AI, hence settings where humans and machines cooperate with each other. By now more than 160 studies from various disciplines have studied how people cooperate with machines in behavioral experiments. Our systematic review of the instructions of these studies reveals that the implementation of th...
Corruption poses one of the biggest current societal problems that commonly originates in organizational settings. Most approaches explain corruption based on rational cost-benefit calculations, neglecting the role of emotions. This dominant approach stands in contrast to the observation that most corruption cases are emotionally charged. A growing...
Curbing bribery presents a global grand challenge. Increasingly bribery occurs across national jurisdictions. While behavioral approaches to study bribery have gained popularity to help design better anti-corruption policies, research has merely examined bribery within single nations. Here we provide first behavioral insights on cross-national brib...
Bribery, a grand global challenge, often occurs across national jurisdictions. Behavioral research studying bribery to inform anti-corruption interventions, however, has merely examined bribery within single nations. Here, we report online experiments and provide first insights into cross-national bribery. We ran a pilot study (across three nations...
Corruption presents one of the biggest challenges of our time, and much hope is placed in artificial intelligence (AI) to combat it. Although the growing number of AI-based anti-corruption tools (AI-ACT) have been summarized, a critical examination of their promises and perils is lacking. Here we argue that the success of AI-ACT strongly depends on...
A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-021-00772-y
Although dishonesty is often a social phenomenon, it is primarily studied in individual settings. However, people frequently collaborate and engage in mutual dishonest acts. We report the first meta-analysis on collaborative dishonesty, analyzing 87,771 decisions (21 behavioral tasks; k = 123; nparticipants = 10,923). We provide an overview of all...
Artificial intelligence and robotics are rapidly advancing. Humans are increasingly often affected by autonomous machines making choices with moral repercussions. At the same time, classical research in robotics shows that people are adverse to robots that appear eerily human—a phenomenon commonly referred to as the uncanny valley effect. Yet, litt...
A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attentio...
Hyper-realistic manipulation of audio-visual content, i.e., deepfakes, presents a new challenge for establishing the veracity of online content. Research on the human impact of deepfakes remains sparse. In a pre-registered behavioral experiment (N=210), we show that (a) people cannot reliably detect deepfakes, and (b) neither raising awareness nor...
A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating
behaviours in non-human animals. However, research
examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in
scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between
sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating
as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates.
Less empirical attentio...
A wide range of literature connects sex ratio and mating behaviours in non-human animals. However, research examining sex ratio and human mating is limited in scope. Prior work has examined the relationship between sex ratio and desire for short-term, uncommitted mating as well as outcomes such as marriage and divorce rates. Less empirical attentio...
As machines powered by artificial intelligence (AI) influence humans’ behaviour in ways that are both like and unlike the ways humans influence each other, worry emerges about the corrupting power of AI agents. To estimate the empirical validity of these fears, we review the available evidence from behavioural science, human–computer interaction an...
Corruption continues to be one of the biggest societal challenges of our time. New hope is placed in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to serve as an unbiased anti-corruption agent. Ever more available (open) government data paired with unprecedented performance of such algorithms render AI the next frontier in anti-corruption. Summarizing existing effo...
Interpersonal touch behavior differs across cultures, yet no study to date has systematically tested for cultural variation in affective touch, nor examined the factors that might account for this variability. Here, over 14,000 individuals from 45 countries were asked whether they embraced, stroked, kissed, or hugged their partner, friends, and you...
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly becoming a trusted advisor in people's lives. A new concern arises if AI persuades people to break ethical rules for profit. Employing a large-scale behavioural experiment (N = 1,572), we test whether AI-generated advice can corrupt people. We further test whether transparency about AI presence, a common...
The release of openly available, robust natural language generation algorithms (NLG) has spurred much public attention and debate. One reason lies in the algorithms' purported ability to generate humanlike text across various domains. Empirical evidence using incentivized tasks to assess whether people (a) can distinguish and (b) prefer algorithm-g...
Hyper-realistic manipulation of audio-visual content, i.e., deepfakes, presents a new challenge for establishing veracity of online content. Research on the human impact of deepfakes, addressing both behaviors in response to and cognitive processing of deepfakes, remains sparse. In a pre-registered behavioral experiment ( N = 210), we show that (a)...
The sharing economy is estimated to add hundreds of billions of USD to the global economy and is rapidly growing. However, trust-based commercial sharing—the participation in for-profit peer-to-peer sharing-economy activity—has negative as well as positive consequences for both the interacting parties and uninvolved third parties. To share responsi...
The Triangular Theory of Love (measured with Sternberg’s Triangular Love Scale – STLS) is a prominent theoretical concept in empirical research on love. To expand the culturally homogeneous body of previous psychometric research regarding the STLS, we conducted a large-scale cross-cultural study with the use of this scale. In total, we examined mor...
Precise, compared with round, asking prices lead to counteroffers and final agreements that are closer to the asking price. Consequently, popular advice for sellers is to set precise asking prices. We propose that the advice is useful, but only in a buyer’s market, in which buyers counter below the asking price. In a seller’s market, in which buyer...
Considerable research has examined human mate preferences across cultures, finding universal sex differences in preferences for attractiveness and resources as well as sources of systematic cultural variation. Two competing perspectives—an evolutionary psychological perspective and a biosocial role perspective—offer alternative explanations for the...
Precise, compared with round, asking prices lead to counteroffers and final agreements that are closer to the asking price. Consequently, a popular advice for sellers is to set precise asking prices. We propose that the advice is useful, but only in a buyer’s market, in which buyers counter below the asking price. In a seller’s market, in which buy...
The release of openly available, robust text generation algorithms have spurred much public attention and debate. The reason for this public interest lies in algorithm’s purported ability to generate human-like text across various domains. Yet, empirical evidence using incentivized tasks on human behavioral reactions to such algorithms is lacking....
Corruption in the form of bribery continues to be a major societal challenge around the world. The current lab-in-the-field study tested whether dynamic descriptive norms messages on posters can help to reduce bribery. Before, during and after placing posters throughout a medium-sized South African town, incentivized measures of social norms and br...
Humans express a wide array of ideal mate preferences. Around the world, people desire romantic partners who are intelligent, healthy, kind, physically attractive, wealthy, and more. In order for these ideal preferences to guide the choice of actual romantic partners, human mating psychology must possess a means to integrate information across thes...
Mate choice lies close to differential reproduction, the engine of evolution. Patterns of mate choice consequently have power to direct the course of evolution. Here we provide evidence suggesting one pattern of human mate choice—the tendency for mates to be similar in overall desirability—caused the evolution of a structure of correlations that we...
Corruption in the form of bribery continues to be a major societal challenge around the world. The current lab-in-the-field study tested whether descriptive norms messages on posters can help to reduce bribery. Before, during and after placing posters throughout a medium sized South African town, incentivized measures of social norms and bribery we...
Is self-serving lying intuitive? Or does honesty come naturally? Many experiments have manipulated reliance on intuition in behavioral-dishonesty tasks, with mixed results. We present two meta-analyses (with evidential value) testing whether an intuitive mind-set affects the proportion of liars ( k = 73; n = 12,711) and the magnitude of lying ( k =...
Corruption in the education sector is pervasive in many (developing) countries. We examine two interventions to fight corruption in education. The first is an increase of the fixed-wage of teachers. The second is the introduction of a piece-rate scheme that rewards teachers according to the number of students that they attract. We model these mecha...
Research in behavioural ethics repeatedly emphasizes the importance of others for people’s decisions to break ethical rules. Yet, in most lab experiments participants faced ethical dilemmas in full privacy settings. We conducted three experiments in which we compare such private set-ups to situations in which a second person is co-present in the la...
Corruption in the education sector is pervasive in many (developing) countries. We examine two interventions to fight corruption in education. The first is an increase of the fixed-wage of teachers. The second is the introduction of a piece-rate scheme that rewards teachers according to the number of students that they attract. We model these mecha...
Corruption marks a major societal challenge. Although many corrupt practices such as bribery are outlawed in national codes of laws, stark differences in (perceived) corruption levels persist around the world. To explain this gap between legal norms and actual behavior, the current corruption literature emphasizes the importance of social norms, th...
A social norms approach can help practitioners design effective anti-corruption reforms. Social norms in communities, families, and organisations help explain why corruption persists. The threat of social sanctions for norm violations creates pressures on officials and citizens to sustain corrupt practices. Practitioners can use various methods to...
Call: Meta-study on Bribery Games
Dear colleagues,
Nils Koebis, Bruno Verschuere and I are conducting a meta-study on bribery games. Our aim is to compare behavior across behavioral paradigms used to study bribery in the lab, in the field and online to obtain aggregate insights about behavioral factors of bribery.
We kindly ask you to share data...
Lying typically requires greater mental effort than telling the truth. Imposing cognitive load may improve lie detection by limiting the cognitive resources needed to lie effectively, thereby increasing the difference in speed between truths and lies. We test this hypothesis meta-analytically. Across 21 studies using response-time (RT) paradigms (1...
Lying typically requires greater mental effort than telling the truth. Imposing cognitive load may improve lie detection by limiting the cognitive resources needed to lie effectively, thereby increasing the difference in speed between truths and lies. We test this hypothesis meta-analytically. Across 21 studies using response-time (RT) paradigms (1...
Negotiations are often settled near the mid-point between a seller’s asking price and buyer’s counteroffer. Precise, rather than round asking prices are stronger anchors, resulting in agreements closer to the asking price. Because setting precise asking prices tends to favor sellers, real-estate agents frequently advise doing so. While the advice i...
Corruption has enormous detrimental consequences for people around the world. Reducing it requires evidence-based policies. Although a rich and diverse literature from various disciplines such as economics, political science and sociology exists that mostly looks at corruption on the macro level, social psychological research studying the micro-det...
Korruption ist ein Begriff mit vielen Assoziationen, zu dem bereits eine Vielzahl an theoretischen Unterscheidungen postuliert wurden. Da diese Distinktionen mitunter verschiedenen Disziplinen entstammen und größtenteils unabhängig voneinander existieren, versucht dieser Beitrag einen Bezug zwischen den bestehenden Unterscheidungen in Form eines At...
A social psychological perspective toward corruption encompasses the following question: Why do some people in the same context abuse power for their private gains while others do not? This chapter identifies social norms as a crucial variable to explain corruption on all levels of analysis and psychological justification processes. First, we outli...
We introduce an alternative response instruction to reduce the fakability of situational judgment tests. This novel instruction is based on the false consensus effect, a robust social psychological bias whereby people infer that the majority of other people’s thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors are aligned with their own. In four studies, including...
Humans have evolved various adaptations against pathogens, including the physiological immune system. However, not all of these adaptations are physiological: the cognitive mechanisms whereby we avoid potential sources of pathogens-for example, disgust elicited by uncleanliness-can be considered as parts of a behavioural immune system (BIS). The me...
Major forms of corruption constitute a strong threat to the functioning of societies. The most frequent explanation of how severe corruption emerges is the slippery-slope metaphor-the notion that corruption occurs gradually. While having widespread theoretical and intuitive appeal, this notion has barely been tested empirically. We used a recently...
http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-52393-1
Corruption represents 1 of the main societal challenges of our time. At present, there is no theoretical framework distinguishing the prospective decision-making processes involved in different acts of corruption. We differentiate between 2 broad categories of corrupt acts that have different implications for prospective cognition: individual corru...
Höhere Strafen weniger Korruption. Diese Logik trifft nicht immer zu. Warum nicht?
Data used for four studies to be published in Psychological Science
Data used for four studies to be published in Psychological Science
Corruption poses one of the major societal challenges of our time. Considerable advances have been made in understanding corruption on a macro level, yet the psychological antecedents of corrupt behavior remain largely unknown. In order to explain why some people engage in corruption while others do not, we explored the impact of descriptive social...
We know that there are cross-cultural differences on psychological variables, such as individualism/collectivism. But it has not been clear which of these variables show relatively the greatest differences. The Survey of World Views project operated from the premise that such issues are best addressed in a diverse sampling of countries representing...
