The Dark Side of Collaboration | Scientific American | 6/13/22

Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-dark-side-of-collaboration/

Summary: Between 2008 and 2015 Volkswagen repeatedly faked laboratory emissions tests. Engineers manipulated the vehicles to release pollutants at low levels in the lab so they could meet emissions standards in the U.S. and Europe.When the cars hit the road the emission rates were much higher than the allowed number in the US. The Media had dubbed this scam “dieselgate”, and it contributed to a multitude of premature deaths in the US alone. Dieselgate is just one example of what researchers call "collaborative dishonesty.” Oftentimes, discussion about collaboration promotes its advantages. Some examples are group work improves social bonds and helps people solve complex problems they could not address alone. But there are other situations in which group work can become the brithground for dishonest behavior. They analyzed 34 relevant articles from psychologists that involved more than 10,000 participants. In these experiments, scientists asked people to play economic games or carry out decision-making tasks while part of a team. The specific instructions varied from one study to the next, but across experiments, participants could gain money through honesty and teamwork. They also had opportunities to earn some additional money as a group by lying. In some tasks, teams might receive a payout based on the number of puzzles they solved together, but the participants could lie and inflate the quantity they had deciphered for a greater reward. Across all of the studies most groups tended to lie. On average, they earned 35.6% more than what they could make from telling the truth. The good news is that there was a limit to these lies, which suggests people care about moral considerations at least a little bit. Groups did not, on average, earn 100 percent of the money they could have made from lying. Most teams did not simply pretend to solve every puzzle presented.

3 Fun Facts:

1. The emissions were up to 40 times higher than the allowed amount in dieselgate

2. We need to remind ourselves of the consequences in order to not lie

3. Dishonesty is contagious