Do cynics lie to avoid exploitation, to exploit others, or not at all? A registered report on the relationship between cynicism and dishonesty

A registered report on the relationship between cynicism and dishonesty”. The project investigated the association between cynicism and dishonesty and the relative strength of two underlying motives – the motivation to avoid exploitation and the motivation to exploit others.

In Study 1, participants responded to hypothetical ethical dilemmas where they could lie to avoid being exploited or to exploit someone else. In Study 2, participants engaged in an incentivized behavioral task, where they could lie to protect their own endowment from another person, or to take away another person’s endowment. In both studies, participants completed measures of cynicism, Honesty-Humility, and the Dark Factor of Personality.