Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0 Author-Name: Nicolas Jacquemet Author-Name-First: Nicolas Author-Name-Last: Jacquemet Author-Workplace-Name: Paris School Of Economics Author-Name: Alexander James Author-Name-First: Alexander Author-Name-Last: James Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Alaska Anchorage Author-Name: Stéphane Luchini Author-Name-First: Stéphane Author-Name-Last: Luchini Author-Workplace-Name: Aix-Marseille University Author-Name: James J. Murphy Author-Name-First: James Author-Name-Last: Murphy Author-Email: murphy@uaa.alaska.edu Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics, University of Alaska Anchorage Author-Name: Jason F. Shogren Author-Name-First: Jason Author-Name-Last: Shogren Author-Workplace-Name: University Of Wyoming Title: Lying and Shirking Under Oath Abstract: This study explores whether an oath to honesty can reduce both shirking and lying among crowd-sourced internet workers. Using a classic coin-flip experiment, we first show that a substantial majority of Mechanical Turk workers both shirk and lie when reporting the number of heads flipped. We then demonstrate lying can be reduced by first asking each worker to swear voluntarily on his or her honor to tell the truth in subsequent economic decisions. The oath, however, did not reduce shirking as measured by time-at-coin-flip-task, although it did increase the time they spent answering a demographic survey. Conditional on response, MTurk shirkers and liars were less likely to agree to an ex post honesty oath. Our results suggest oaths may help elicit more truthful behavior in on-line crowd-sourced environments. Creation-date: 2019-08 Number: 2019-02 Handle: RePEc:ala:wpaper:2019-02 File-URL: http://www.econpapers.uaa.alaska.edu/RePEC/ala/wpaper/ALA201902.pdf File-Format: Application/pdf Classification-JEL: C81, C90, C93, D01, D82, J20, J30, J40 Keywords: experimental economics, Honesty, Intrinsic Costs, Field Experiment, Solemn Oath, Mechanical Turk, MTurk, lying, shirking, labor economics Publication-Status: