Dishonesty in everyday life and its policy implications

Dishonest acts are all too prevalent in day-to-day life. This article examines some possible psychological causes for dishonesty that go beyond the standard economic considerations of probability and value of external payoffs. The authors propose a general model of dishonest behavior that includes internal psychological reward mechanisms for honesty and dishonesty, and they discuss the implications of this model in terms of curbing dishonesty.