In Greene and Paxton's study, participants who behaved mostly honestly showed the same reaction times whether they had an opportunity to cheat or not, and whether they won or lost money.
Notes on verification
Core finding well-corroborated by original study description and a closely related replication (Abe & Greene 2014), though exact original 2009 reaction-time table data couldn't be directly verified due to paywall access. [tier=gold indep_score=0.867 clusters=3 claim_tier=notable] [kind-backfill 2026-09-15: kind=attributed eligibility=high]
Sources
- Will vs. Grace – are people honest because they resist temptation or ... (seed:science_and_space)
- https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0900152106 (corroboration)
- https://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/32/10564 (corroboration)
- https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Joseph-M-Paxton-30561772 (corroboration)