"I'm just being honest." When and why honesty enables help versus harm.
@article{Levine2020ImJB, title={"I'm just being honest." When and why honesty enables help versus harm.}, author={Emma E. Levine and David Mauricio Munguia Gomez}, journal={Journal of personality and social psychology}, year={2020} }
Although honesty is typically conceptualized as a virtue, it often conflicts with other equally important moral values, such as avoiding interpersonal harm. In the present research, we explore when and why honesty enables helpful versus harmful behavior. Across 5 incentive-compatible experiments in the context of advice-giving and economic games, we document four central results. First, honesty enables selfish harm: people are more likely to engage in and justify selfish behavior when…
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