I did it for their sake! - Social benefit drives corruption in a dice rolling experiment

Exploring the motivations behind fraudulent behaviours, such as corruption, are often done using dice-rolling experiments. In the present experiment, we investigated how the willingness for cheating is influenced by (i) the cheating behaviour of a partner and (ii) by-product altruism (cost-free charity). We studied four settings of the dice-rolling game, with and without a cheating partner and with and without by-product altruism. Following the game phase, subjects filled out the Moral Foundations Questionnaire and the Social Dominance Orientation questionnaires. We found that while in the non-charity settings the cheating is not experienced independently of the chatting behaviour of the partner, but it is significantly increased by the possibility of donating to charitable foundations. Subjects with a stronger moral integrity were less likely to cheat in the cheating partner and charity option settings. No clear associations were found between cheating and Social Dominance Orientation. Our results showed that the chance of engaging in corrupt behaviour is significantly increased if the subjects perceive that they are doing a socially beneficial act as a by-product of their unethical behaviour.