Liar, Liar, Bottom-Signer! Signing a Form at the Top Leads to More Honest Answers

Many official forms require that you sign your name at the bottom to signify that you have, to the best of your knowledge and ability, supplied honest information. But if you really want people to be honest, a recent study in PNAS suggests, it's better to have them sign their names at the top of the form instead, before they fill in anything else. Having people sign the top of a form made them less likely to cheat when reporting how much money they'd earned in a simple experiment, the researchers found, or when claiming travel expenses for their trip to the lab; people who signed in the usual spot at the bottom of the form were, statistically, just as likely to cheat as those who didn't have to sign the form anywhere. The scientists then put the idea to a real-world test, collaborating with an insurance company to send ...