Supervisors: Panagiotis Mitkidis & Stefan Pfattheicher
Discussants: Jakob Lauring & Pernille Smith

Abstract
Humans are a cooperative species, which enables the large organization of collective activities that represent human life. However, big publicized corporate scandals like the recent Theranos case, which led to investors losing more than US$600 million, highlights the sometimes detrimental consequences of the Homo cooperativus. Previous research on collaborative corruption has primarily been based on anonymous interactions without communication, allowing minimal conditions for joint goals and shared intentions. The goal of this PhD project is to gain insight into the emergence of joint dishonest goals and to investigate the transmission of dishonest norms in organizations. Three projects will be presented. First, I present preliminary results from an online experiment investigating the role of communication and joint goals in collaborative corruption. Next, I present a protocol for the study of the transmission of dishonest norms in small groups within different organizational designs, followed by a study proposal on the impact of different organizational cultures on cheating behavior. By identifying the cultural evolutionary processes of corruption, such as the emergence and transmission of dishonest norms, this PhD project seeks to generate knowledge for mitigation strategies to help prevent the occurrence and spread of corrupt practices.

Everyone is welcome!