Lying to Police Officers in the Ultimatum Game: An Experimental Study With Israeli Samples

Abstract

Two studies examined lying, fair sharing, and trust of Israeli police officers and laypeople to police and non-police target persons in the Ultimatum Game. Participants aimed to retain as many resources as possible in a sharing situation. To this end, they could conceal resources from the target person. Thus, a measure of lying was created by letting participants act in a specific role. Results indicated that police officers lied less to police targets than non-police targets. Conversely, laypeople lied more to police targets and less to non-police targets. Police officers' preference for honest sharing with police targets and laypeople’s selfish sharing with police targets signified the first study’s results. Results were explained by ingroup-outgroup differences, further inspired by severe events undermining the Israeli police’s reputation. One year later, similar but weaker results were obtained in a second study. Police officers trusted police targets more than non-police targets, and laypeople trusted police targets less than non-police targets.