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People can handle the truth (more than you think)
Most people value the moral principle of honesty. At the same time, they frequently avoid being honest with people in their everyday lives. Who hasn’t told a fib or half-truth to get through an awkward social situation or to keep the peace?
New research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business explores the consequences of honesty in everyday life and determines that people can often afford to be more honest than they think.
In the paper, “You Can Handle the Truth: Mispredicting the Consequences of Honest Communication,” Chicago Booth Assistant Professor Emma Levine and Carnegie Mellon University’s Taya Cohen find that people significantly overestimate the costs of honest conversations.
“We're often reluctant to have completely honest conversations with others,” says Levine. “We think offering critical feedback or opening up about our secrets will be uncomfortable for both us and the people with whom we are talking.”
The researchers conclude that such fears are often misguided. Honest conversations are far more enjoyable for communicators than they expect them to be, and the listeners of honest conversations react less negatively than expected, according to the paper, published in the Journal of Experiment Psychology: General.
For purposes of the study, the researchers define honesty as “speaking in accordance with one’s own beliefs, thoughts and feelings.”
In a series of experiments, the researchers explore the actual and predicted consequences of honesty in everyday life.
In one field experiment, participants were instructed to be completely honest with everyone in their lives for three days. In a laboratory experiment, participants had to be honest with a close relational partner while answering personal and potentially difficult discussion questions A third experiment instructed participants to honestly share negative feedback to a close relational partner.
Across all the experiments, individuals expect honesty to be less pleasant and less social connecting than it actually is.
“Taken together, these findings suggest that individuals’ avoidance of honesty may be a mistake,” the researchers write. “By avoiding honesty, individuals miss out on opportunities that they appreciate in the long-run, and that they would want to repeat.”
by Jon Levy
Science Has Confirmed That Honesty Really Is the Best Policy in the Workplace
Almost every company claims they promote values of honesty, transparency and trust. However, as recent scandals have shown, what an organization claims and how it behaves are not always aligned. The downsides of dishonesty would seem obvious, but the continued prevalence in the corporate world begs the question: Why are leaders and their employees engaging in it? Is honesty really the best policy?
Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion, has spent his career researching the science of influence and its ethical applications in business. When it comes to honesty, company leaders need to know these essentials.
The state of honesty in the workplace.
Workplaces today all have policies that are intended to uphold honest and ethical business practices. In one EY study, 81 percent of C-suite executives reported that policies and codes of conduct were in place, yet over half of respondents did not believe that the people who breached them were penalized. Furthermore, unethical practices seemed to be accepted, with 5 percent admitting that they would misstate financial performance to survive an economic downturn.
The traditional argument against dishonesty is that when you are discovered, your reputation will be sullied. No one will want to buy your products or services again, but obviously, that argument is not convincing enough. People think they will never get caught, or they justify their deception with the promise of improving profits. Even though company leaders and employees are aware of the risks, they are choosing to engage in these activities anyway.
When policies aren’t enough, what do leaders need to understand to make honesty a priority in the workplace? It comes down to understanding the negative effects it creates and that in long run, science shows that the benefits don’t outweigh the costs.
1. Dishonesty disrupts employee performance.
Dr. Cialdini and his colleagues conducted an experiment with two teams competing by answering a series of questions on the computer. At the end, the team leader intentionally told the group that they were going to lie to the conductor about their score, and increase it from 67 percent to 80 percent. The second group reported the true score of 67 percent. In the next round of tests, the participants in the group that had been deceptive scored 20 percent lower than the team that did not. The study suggested that the moral stress of lying and cheating led to poor performance.
These results are consistent with his research in Pre-Suasion -- that dishonesty can create significant moral stress on employees. Moral stress occurs when an employee’s ethical values conflict with those of an organization, and it has been linked to employee fatigue and burnout.
2. Organizations experience greater turnover.
Eventually, those individuals who are stressed by dishonesty will leave the organization. Then, what's left will be the people who are comfortable with deception and are more likely to cheat, lie and engage in unethical behavior. More concerning is that according to Dr. Cialdini, these workers in an enduring dishonest work culture have little allegiance. When given the opportunity, they will cheat the organization to benefit themselves.
In one case, Dr. Cialdini recalls that an employee even sabotaged equipment so they wouldn’t have to work. When you allow dishonesty toward customers and clients outside the organization, it fosters more dishonest behavior among workers within it.
3. It’s damaging to the bottom line.
These negative effects combined ultimately hurt a company’s bottom line. In the short term, deception may seem worth it, but it leads to costly long-term consequences. Turnover is one of the most common and expensive. Dr. Cialdini estimates that for the average-sized business of 1,000 employees, losing just 10 percent of employees making a $40,000 annual salary would create $4 million every year in turnover costs.
It is clear that the costs associated with poor employee performance and turnover are great. It takes a toll on company reputation and relationships with customers and clients. Cutting corners and engaging in deceptive and dishonest practices may seem like the more profitable or beneficial decision at the time. However, according to scientific findings, those short-term gains are rarely worth the damage that it causes over time.