In this article, Mazar & Ariely use the method of scientific experiment to study the relationship between dishonesty and “internalized reward mechanisms”. They designed four experimental conditions: “(1) experimenter graded (control), (2) self-graded(self), (3) self-graded plus shredding (self+), and (4) self-graded plus shredding plus self-payment (self++)” (paragraph 15). The experimental results show that, when the probability of being caught is very small, most people cheat to a small extent, not more. Even if the possibility of being caught is further reduced, people will not cheat more. It seems that there is a threshold. Mazar & Ariely claim that, below the threshold, the “internalized reward mechanisms” will not be activated. But beyond the threshold, the “internalized reward mechanisms” will be activated, and people's willingness to be dishonest will be reduced. However, when the external incentive is very large, the “internalized reward mechanisms” seems to be “overridden.” When this segmented relationship is reflected in the mathematical graph, the graph looks like steps. Based on these elaborations and graphs, Mazar & Ariely establish support for the hypothesis that the tendency to act dishonestly is a step function.
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