Many faces of bankers' identity : How (not) to study dishonesty

Abstract

Our goal is to highlight the fact that the study of cultural norms on behavior using indirect methods often precludes us from making strong conclusions, because alternative explanations are plentiful and hard to rule out. We offer suggestions how future studies can build on the CFM design and more reliably answer the question whether the social norm in banking really supports dishonesty.

Keywords

• dishonesty
• identity priming
• labeling
• banking culture
• stereotype
• entitlement
• money priming
• experimental methodology