Although examples of deception and fraud in business have generated widespread interest in themotivations for honest behavior, little is known about individual differences in the propensity totell the truth. This paper highlights the role of honesty as a protected value, maintaining thatsome...

Some people are motivated by the non-selfish, non-strategic, and non-consequentialist “sacredvalue” of Truth. We conduct the first experiment directly assessing this phenomenon. We findthat people differ substantially in their truthfulness, with a large minority powerfully inclined...