Comments on: Liar, Liar, Bottom-Signer! Signing a Form at the Top Leads to More Honest Answers http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/09/06/liar-liar-bottom-signer-signing-a-form-at-the-top-leads-to-more-honest-answers/ Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:34:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: DC http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/09/06/liar-liar-bottom-signer-signing-a-form-at-the-top-leads-to-more-honest-answers/#comment-34143 DC Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:57:16 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/?p=39656#comment-34143 Not likely. Signing at the top puts the honesty factor in people's minds, as well as their honour or reputation, before they start anything so honesty is on their minds the entire time. Signing afterward is an afterthought, and to change the information is a self-admittance you're a liar, which is hard for a lot of people to accept. Even if they realized they weren't completely honest, they aren't likely going to go back and admit it outright by changing an answer. Not likely. Signing at the top puts the honesty factor in people’s minds, as well as their honour or reputation, before they start anything so honesty is on their minds the entire time. Signing afterward is an afterthought, and to change the information is a self-admittance you’re a liar, which is hard for a lot of people to accept. Even if they realized they weren’t completely honest, they aren’t likely going to go back and admit it outright by changing an answer.

]]> By: kheun http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/09/06/liar-liar-bottom-signer-signing-a-form-at-the-top-leads-to-more-honest-answers/#comment-34142 kheun Mon, 10 Sep 2012 01:09:08 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/?p=39656#comment-34142 Could this be a Hawthorne effect? Once people get use to signing at the top as they did for signing at the bottom, they will back up to their usual honesty behavior when filling up the form. More observation may be needed to determine if this effect is permanent. Could this be a Hawthorne effect? Once people get use to signing at the top as they did for signing at the bottom, they will back up to their usual honesty behavior when filling up the form. More observation may be needed to determine if this effect is permanent.

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