Social status beats money

If a lie would be bad for their image, people are more likely to ignore financial incentives - People are more honest when talking about topics involving high-status knowledge. A new study in the field of behavioral economics shows that this is true even if they have a financial incentive to lie. Questions of trust become more important in business as it becomes more and more difficult to assess statements on increasingly difficult technologies. Trust is essential to every business relationship. Customers want honest information from the people selling them a complex high-tech product. But can they rely on what they are told? After all, a sales representative looking to earn a commission could be downplaying the disadvantages of the product. In which situations can we trust our fellow human beings despite potential financial benefits from lying to us' To find out, Prof. Michael Kurschilgen (Technical University of Munich and Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods) and Dr. Isabel Marcin (University of Heidelberg) put approximately 190 research subjects to the test.