The effects of stress on dishonesty are moderated by an individual’s moral default: Multiverse analysis

This thesis presents a small-scale multiverse analysis approach to explore the influence of stress on (dis)honest decision-making and aims to reproduce the findings and expand on the study by Speer et al. (2023). The hypothesis implies that the effect of stress on decision-making is moderated by an individual’s moral default. The analyses used logistic regression and logistic mixed effects models, focusing on the baseline tendency to cheat (“moral default”) and how this tendency possibly changes in response to stress. The findings suggest that outcomes are sensitive to the choice of statistical model. Logistic regression models indicated significant interaction effects in six pathways, while logistic mixed effect models showed significance in only two out of 20. The analyses also examined the influence of dummy and effect coding, finding that while effect coding resulted in smaller standard errors, the different coding of the stress conditions did not significantly alter the overall...Show moreThis thesis presents a small-scale multiverse analysis approach to explore the influence of stress on (dis)honest decision-making and aims to reproduce the findings and expand on the study by Speer et al. (2023). The hypothesis implies that the effect of stress on decision-making is moderated by an individual’s moral default. The analyses used logistic regression and logistic mixed effects models, focusing on the baseline tendency to cheat (“moral default”) and how this tendency possibly changes in response to stress. The findings suggest that outcomes are sensitive to the choice of statistical model. Logistic regression models indicated significant interaction effects in six pathways, while logistic mixed effect models showed significance in only two out of 20. The analyses also examined the influence of dummy and effect coding, finding that while effect coding resulted in smaller standard errors, the different coding of the stress conditions did not significantly alter the overall conclusions and p-values. Different outlier exclusion methods emphasise the role of the researcher’s degrees of freedom, revealing how different decisions on the outlier rule can significantly influence the results. This study contributes to the understanding of the complex relationship between stress and moral decision-making.Show less

Leiden University Student Repository

Documents

In Collections

The effects of stress on dishonesty are moderated by an individual’s moral default: Multiverse analysis