It’s a coin toss between China and Turkey for the title of least honest country, according to a new study.
As part of a 15-nation honesty study, researchers from the University of East Anglia had the 1,500 subjects participate in a coin flip, telling them they’d get up to $5 every time it came up heads.
The researchers theorized that if the percentage reporting heads was over 50 percent, participants were being dishonest, since heads statistically shows up only half the time.
An estimated 70 percent of Chinese participants lied — the most dishonest of the bunch, according to the study.
Bringing up the least honest rear were Japan, South Korea and India, respectively, according to the study.
Meanwhile, British participants were found to be the most honest — with only 3.4 percent fibbing — according to researchers at the English university.
Americans ranked eighth, with just under 40 percent lying, according to the study.
Study author Dr. David Hugh-Jones said the difference between China and other least honest finishers might be explained by cultural views, such as attitudes toward gambling, as opposed be being inherently dishonest.
As a second part of their survey, the researchers used a six-question music quiz, with queries ranging from knowing Lady Gaga’s real name, the exact town and state where Michael Jackson was born and who wrote “Für Elise.”
Participants again were rewarded with money if they got all the answers correct.
Three of the questions were intentionally difficult — making it very likely that participants would need to look up the answers — and getting more than one of these questions right indicated cheating, the study notes.
Participants were also asked to refrain from Googling any of the answers and had to check a box that they didn’t cheat.
Turkey lied the most, according to the study, and Japanese participants came up most honest.
The US was the third most truthful, coming in right behind second-place finisher Great Britain.
Source: New York Post
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