Risk and dishonesty: assessing the willingness to lie in order to obtain vaccinations and furlough payments during the COVID-19 pandemic

For people across the globe, accessing resources such as vaccinations and furlough payments has been key for managing the health and financial risks following the COVID-19 pandemic. However, getting access to these resources has often proved challenging. For instance, in some countries, the demand for COVID-19 vaccinations was much higher than the availability. COVID-19 created a unique case to evaluate the possibility that the greater the (perceived) risk magnitude posed by the pandemic, the more likely it could be that individuals would engage in unethical behaviours to gain access to prized resources (e.g., vaccination). More specifically, we postulate that individuals would be more likely to cheat about their health or financial status in order to improve the probability of obtaining, respectively, vaccinations or furlough payments. To study this important topic, we have created a bespoke scenarios based on the COVID-19 pandemic and conducted three experimental studies to evaluate whether objective risk, perceived risk and other factors would impact participants’ intention to be dishonest in order to improve their chances of accessing pandemic risk management resources. Study 1 (N = 302) evaluated the extent to which the objective and perceived risk of the COVID-19 pandemic influenced individuals to provide false information about their health status to access a limited supply of vaccination. In Study 2 (N = 201) we assessed whether the extent to which individuals provided false information varied when we manipulated the information that would help them access a vaccination or access to furlough payments. Finally, Study 3 (N = 270) evaluated whether the willingness of individuals to cheat in order to access furlough payments was influenced by the risk (probability) that their dishonesty could be detected by the government. Across all three studies, our results show that approximately one third of all participants would cheat to access vaccinations or furlough payments. Study 1 found that the perceived risk, but not the objective risk, of the disease significantly predicted dishonesty when attempting to access vaccinations. While Study 2 found no difference in levels of dishonesty between those attempting to obtain a vaccination and those attempting to obtain furlough payments, the results showed that perceived risk significantly predicted dishonesty for vaccinations but not for furlough payments. Finally, Study 3 found a significant positive relationship between dishonesty and the risk of being detected. Taken together, our studies and results have important implications for ensuring that, during a pandemic, risk management resources can be allocated in a fair and judicious and that fraud can be reduced.