Singapore, 21 April 2025 – A worldwide field experiment conducted by the National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School has revealed that individuals demonstrate a marked increase in honest behaviour when they are offered the option of being monitored and subsequently choosing it.
As a fundamental pillar of human behaviour, honesty often clashes with personal self-interest. This tension often results in undesirable behaviours such as non-compliance, inaction, or even deliberate obstruction of policies, such as fraud or tax evasion.
To better understand how honesty can be encouraged, researchers conducted a large-scale field experiment involving 34,543 participants aged 18 and above, from nine countries – Brazil, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. They were subjected to varying conditions where their actions were assessed by the researchers.
Dishonesty prevalent amongst unmonitored individuals
Under the condition which was unmonitored by the researchers, participants were asked to privately roll a die and report the outcome to win a prize. A higher roll would mean a higher chance to win a prize. It was observed that the participants across all nine countries consistently over-reported their die rolls with the hope of winning a prize. They exhibited different levels of honesty, with those from China and India showing the lowest rates of overreporting while Brazil and Mexico had the highest rates.
Conversely, when participants were given the choice of rolling the die on a monitored platform where the researchers could observe the results and award a corresponding prize, more than 85% opted to be monitored. Compared to the private condition with no option to choose, participants from this condition demonstrated significantly lower rates of overreporting. There were no irregularities among the different nationalities across both groups and the results highlighted how giving the option of being monitored can induce honest behaviour.
Dr Kim Dayoung, Senior Lecturer from the Marketing Department at NUS Business School, said, “We were surprised to discover that individuals, regardless of their nationality, would choose to roll the die on a monitored platform if given the option. This stems from the psychological tendency to maintain a positive self-image in front of others. Our study could hold exciting implications for day-to-day business activities.”
Giving individuals the choice to declare that the information submitted in different a job application or healthcare declarations is accurate and truthful, is a possible way to translate the study’s findings.
“We hope to carry out future tests on how our findings on honesty can be replicated across various daily settings such as business operations. There is also a need to explore how the size of rewards will affect a person’s honesty,” added Dr Kim.
The study, titled ‘How to induce honesty: results from a large-scale experiment’, was a collaboration with Nanyang Technological University and Florida State University and published in the Policy and Society, a leading international open access journal under Oxford Academic.
To access the full research paper, please click here.
About National University of Singapore (NUS)
The National University of Singapore (NUS) is Singapore’s flagship university, which offers a global approach to education, research and entrepreneurship, with a focus on Asian perspectives and expertise. We have 16 colleges, faculties and schools across three campuses in Singapore, with more than 40,000 students from 100 countries enriching our vibrant and diverse campus community. We have also established more than 20 NUS Overseas Colleges entrepreneurial hubs around the world.
Our multidisciplinary and real-world approach to education, research and entrepreneurship enables us to work closely with industry, governments and academia to address crucial and complex issues relevant to Asia and the world. Researchers in our faculties, research centres of excellence, corporate labs and more than 30 university-level research institutes focus on themes that include energy; environmental and urban sustainability; treatment and prevention of diseases; active ageing; advanced materials; risk management and resilience of financial systems; Asian studies; and Smart Nation capabilities such as artificial intelligence, data science, operations research and cybersecurity.
For more information on NUS, please visit nus.edu.sg.
About NUS Business School
The National University of Singapore (NUS) Business School is known for providing management thought leadership from an Asian perspective, enabling its students and corporate partners to leverage global knowledge and Asian insights.
The school has consistently received top rankings in the Asia-Pacific region by independent publications and agencies, such as The Financial Times, Economist Intelligence Unit, and QS Top MBA, in recognition of the quality of its programmes, faculty research and graduates.
The school is accredited by AACSB International (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) and EQUIS (European Quality Improvement System), endorsements that the school has met the highest standards for business education. The school is also a member of the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), Executive MBA Council, Partnership in Management (PIM) and CEMS (Community of European Management Schools).
For more information about NUS Business School, please visit bschool.nus.edu.sg, or go to the BIZBeat portal, which showcases the School’s research.
Media contacts:
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NUS Business School
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Natalie Law
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NUS Business School
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Email: natalielaw@nus.edu.sg