Sharon Leal: Please Be Honest and Provide Details I Can Check: Deterrents of Deception in an Online Insurance Fraud Context

Duration: 15 mins 2 secs

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Created:	2015-09-28 17:46
Collection:	Decepticon 2015
Publisher:	University of Cambridge
Copyright:	Dr S. Van der Zee
Language:	eng (English)
Keywords:	Deception; Deterrence; Insurance fraud;


Abstract:	In the present study we aimed to ascertain if certain factors could affect the degree of deception in an online insurance claim context. A total of 96 participants were asked to read a vignette about a burglary that ostensibly took place one week before. Their task was to complete an online claim on behalf of the people burgled and they were provided with various degrees of evidence of ownership of the items stolen. All participants were informed that they could be totally truthful and gain £5 by just claiming for the items taken, or, if they wanted to earn more money, to lie and inflate the claim amount. They were informed that if not believed, they would earn nothing. Attitudes to insurance companies and reasons for lying or truth telling were measured in a post-study questionnaire. A 2 (Checkable Detail: yes/no) x 2 (Honesty: before /after) independent design was used. For the checkable detail factor participants were asked to provide credible evidence that the couple owned the items /cash stolen. For the honesty factor, some participants were asked to state at the beginning of the claim that they would complete the claim totally honestly, others were asked to state they had completed the claim honestly afterwards. Initial results indicate that in accordance with previous research, most participants demonstrated a high dislike of insurance companies and the majority lied because of this. In addition, the degree of lying and amount of cash claimed was influenced by the manipulations. Those who were asked to provide checkable details and also be honest at the beginning lied significantly less than participants in the control group (no provision of checkable details and honesty provision afterwards).

Abstract:

In the present study we aimed to ascertain if certain factors could affect the degree of deception in an online insurance claim context. A total of 96 participants were asked to read a vignette about a burglary that ostensibly took place one week before. Their task was to complete an online claim on behalf of the people burgled and they were provided with various degrees of evidence of ownership of the items stolen. All participants were informed that they could be totally truthful and gain £5 by just claiming for the items taken, or, if they wanted to earn more money, to lie and inflate the claim amount. They were informed that if not believed, they would earn nothing. Attitudes to insurance companies and reasons for lying or truth telling were measured in a post-study questionnaire. A 2 (Checkable Detail: yes/no) x 2 (Honesty: before /after) independent design was used. For the checkable detail factor participants were asked to provide credible evidence that the couple owned the items /cash stolen. For the honesty factor, some participants were asked to state at the beginning of the claim that they would complete the claim totally honestly, others were asked to state they had completed the claim honestly afterwards. Initial results indicate that in accordance with previous research, most participants demonstrated a high dislike of insurance companies and the majority lied because of this. In addition, the degree of lying and amount of cash claimed was influenced by the manipulations. Those who were asked to provide checkable details and also be honest at the beginning lied significantly less than participants in the control group (no provision of checkable details and honesty provision afterwards).

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