Given the opportunity to secretly lie in order to win a beautifully wrapped Lindt Lindor chocolate truffle, only 14pc of more than 1,000 research participants did so, a proportion that was consistent across 16 countries ranging from Austria to India to Indonesia to the US, says a team of researchers led by David Pascual-Ezama of Universidad Complutense Madrid. Although these countries’ civic institutions vary widely in corruption levels, their citizens are basically alike in their low propensity to lie, the findings suggest.

(Source: Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organisation)

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, August 24th, 2015

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