Article to Audio

Philosophers, psychologists, and economists have long asserted that deception harms trust. We challenge
this claim. Across four studies, we demonstrate that deception can increase trust. Specifically, prosocial
lies increase the willingness to pass money in the trust game, a behavioral measure of benevolence-based
trust. In Studies 1a and 1b, we find that altruistic lies increase trust when deception is directly experienced and when it is merely observed. In Study 2, we demonstrate that mutually beneficial lies also
increase trust. In Study 3, we disentangle the effects of intentions and deception; intentions are far more
important than deception for building benevolence-based trust. In Study 4, we examine how prosocial
lies influence integrity-based trust. We introduce a new economic game, the Rely-or-Verify game, to measure integrity-based trust. Prosocial lies increase benevolence-based trust, but harm integrity-based
trust. Our findings expand our understanding of deception and deepen our insight into the mechanics
of trust.

Show Notes

Emma E. Levine is an Associate Professor of Behavioral Science and the Charles E. Merrill Faculty Scholar at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Levine studies the psychology of honesty, trust, and ethical dilemmas. She holds a PhD from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.  
 
Maurice Schweitzer is the Cecelia Yen Koo Professor of Operations, Information, and Decisions and Management at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Maurice studies negotiations and decision making.

Article Citation
Levine, Emma E. & Schweitzer, Maurice E., 2015. "Prosocial lies: When deception breeds trust," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 88-106.

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“Article to Audio” features interviews with scholars about their research on negotiation and conflict management from our field's top academic journals. We have specifically designed the format and content of the episodes to be rooted in research findings but avoiding complicated jargon so that the series can be useful for a variety of audiences, including upper-year undergraduates, graduate students, and the general public.