Lying about money and game points by men and women and its relation to the Self-Reported Lying Scale

Introduction: The present study was designed to examine the effect of monetary and non-monetary endowment on lying by men and women in the Ultimatum Game. Another goal was to examine to what extent the Self-Reported Lying Scale (SRLS), described here for the first time, predicts lying in the Ultimatum Game. Methods: Examinees (162, 82 women) were allocated to four experimental conditions in a 2 × 2 factorial design. Two endowment conditions (money and game points) were crossed with two sex conditions (men and women). Participants underwent an Ultimatum Game in which they were permitted to conceal part of the endowment from an unidentified partner. Finally, participants completed the SRLS. Results: The results indicated that more cash than points were concealed from the partner, and men concealed more of their endowment than women. We further defined fake fairness in sharing that combined hiding a more significant portion of the endowment from the partner while presenting fair sharing of the remaining award. We found more fake fairness when money was shared than when points were concealed. Fake fairness is more significant for men than for women. For money and points alike, concealment was predicted by the global score of the SRLS and its five subscales (self-assessed lying ability, lie detection ability, the use of reason in lying, lie acceptability, and lie frequency). Discussion: It was suggested that a monetary endowment is more sensitive to lying than game points and involves more fake fairness. Nevertheless, the differences are quantitative, and the same response pattern exists in the two endowment conditions. Replacing money with points is a proper solution whenever a monetary endowment presents difficulties. It was further suggested that sex differences exist in lying using an asymmetric information UG, where proposers were permitted to mislead responders about their endowment. Finally, the SRLS may contribute to a better understanding of the question of who lies.