Perceived Anonymity and Cheating in an Online Experiment

This paper presents the outcomes of an online coin-tossing experiment evaluating cheating behaviour among Ukrainian students. Over 1,500 participants were asked to make ten coin tosses and were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups tossing coins (1) online, (2) manually, or (3) having the choice between tossing manually or online. The study outcomes suggest that students are more inclined to cheat when they perceive the coin toss to be more ‘private’. Moreover, the students’ attitudes towards corruption appear to matter for the extent of their cheating, while socio-demographic characteristics were less important.