Dishonesty in the Name of Equity 1 Running Head: DISHONESTY IN THE NAME OF EQUITY Dishonesty in the Name of Equity

Under what conditions do people act dishonestly to help or hurt others? This paper addresses this question by examining the influence of a previously overlooked factor – the beneficiary or victim of dishonest acts. In two experiments, we randomly pair participants and manipulate their wealth levels through an initial lottery. We then observe how inequity between partners influences the likelihood of one dishonestly helping or hurting the other, while varying the financial incentives for dishonest behavior. The results show that financial self-interest cannot fully explain people’s tendency to dishonestly help or hurt others. Rather, such dishonesty is influenced by emotional reactions to wealth-based inequity, even when this behavior bears a personal financial cost. Envy evoked by negative inequity leads to hurting behavior, while guilt induced by positive inequity motivates helping behavior. Finally, inequity between the partner and third parties triggers dishonest helping through empathy with the referent other.