{"id":1557,"date":"2013-06-22T09:27:45","date_gmt":"2013-06-22T09:27:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/?p=1557"},"modified":"2023-03-01T01:32:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-01T06:32:41","slug":"whats-done-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Done in the Dark . . . | Sogolytics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Anonymous<\/a>The Atlantic<\/i> website has a recent article about a fascinating study. According to the author, Francesca Gino, she and her husband conducted a series of experiments designed to see what effect varying darkness level shave on dishonest behavior. They placed individuals in rooms with different light amounts and later asked them to self-report on their actions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The results were startling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gino writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe you would stay true to your moral compass. But, as it turns out, many of our participants did not: in fact, on average, about half of them cheated across conditions.More interestingly, the level of darkness in the room dramatically influenced participants’ likelihood to lie by over reporting their performance: almost 61 percent of the participants in the dim room cheated, while \u2018only\u2019 about 24 percent of participants in the well-lit room cheated.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Are people really <\/i>more likely to engage in unethical behavior when they believe no one can see their actions?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While I can\u2019t speak to the scientific rigor of Ms. Gino\u2019s ad hoc experiment, there is <\/i>one situation where anonymity is extremely beneficial: survey responses. One study measured the impact of anonymity on combat soldiers\u2019<\/a> post deployment mental health screenings. The results found that mental health reporting was \u201c. . . 2-fold to 4-fold higher on the anonymous survey compared with the routine Post-Deployment Health Assessment.\u201d Anonymity is so important that some universities include it in their best practices.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Only Sogolytics guarantees true Anonymity<\/a>. By removing all electronic identifying information such as email and IP addresses, your respondents are free to be completely candid and honest. And your company or organization benefits when people tell you how they really feel.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Anecdotally, it may be true that people are more likely to be dishonest when they feel physically or psychologically sheltered by darkness. But it\u2019s equally important to remember that \u2014 for many honest individuals \u2014 darkness is a protective covering allowing them to act ethically without fear of reprisal. Granting your participants the darkness of anonymity ensures they\u2019ll truthfully shed light on issues of great importance to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Atlantic website has a recent article about a fascinating study. According to the author, Francesca Gino, she and her husband conducted a series of experiments designed to see what effect varying darkness level shave on dishonest behavior. They placed individuals in rooms with different light amounts and later asked them to self-report on their actions.   The results were startling.   Gino writes: \u201cMaybe you would stay true to your moral compass. But, as it turns out, many of our participants did not: in fact, on average, about half of them cheated across conditions.More interestingly, the level of darkness in the room dramatically influenced participants’ likelihood to lie by over reporting their performance: almost 61 percent of the participants in the dim room cheated, while \u2018only\u2019 about 24 percent of participants in the well-lit room cheated.\u201d   Are people really more likely to engage in unethical behavior when they believe no one can see their actions?   While I can\u2019t speak to the scientific rigor of Ms. Gino\u2019s ad hoc experiment, there is one situation where anonymity is extremely beneficial: survey responses. One study measured the impact of anonymity on combat soldiers\u2019 post deployment mental health screenings. The results found that mental health reporting was \u201c. . . 2-fold to 4-fold higher on the anonymous survey compared with the routine Post-Deployment Health Assessment.\u201d Anonymity is so important that some universities include it in their best practices.   Only Sogolytics guarantees true Anonymity. By removing all electronic identifying information such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,205],"tags":[220,211,256,39,60],"yoast_head":"\nWhat\u2019s Done in the Dark - Sogolytics Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Only Sogolytics guarantees truly anonymous surveys. By removing all electronic identifying information, your respondents are free to be completely honest.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What\u2019s Done in the Dark - Sogolytics Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Only Sogolytics guarantees truly anonymous surveys. By removing all electronic identifying information, your respondents are free to be completely honest.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sogolytics Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-22T09:27:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-01T06:32:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ff-4.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"487\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"714\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sogolytics\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/\",\"name\":\"What\u2019s Done in the Dark - Sogolytics Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-22T09:27:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-03-01T06:32:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/137ad89cc093b0bb889c68e4b1825fb1\"},\"description\":\"Only Sogolytics guarantees truly anonymous surveys. By removing all electronic identifying information, your respondents are free to be completely honest.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"What\u2019s Done in the Dark . . . | Sogolytics\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Sogolytics Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/137ad89cc093b0bb889c68e4b1825fb1\",\"name\":\"Sogolytics\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/author\/sogosurvey\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What\u2019s Done in the Dark - Sogolytics Blog","description":"Only Sogolytics guarantees truly anonymous surveys. By removing all electronic identifying information, your respondents are free to be completely honest.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What\u2019s Done in the Dark - Sogolytics Blog","og_description":"Only Sogolytics guarantees truly anonymous surveys. By removing all electronic identifying information, your respondents are free to be completely honest.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/","og_site_name":"Sogolytics Blog","article_published_time":"2013-06-22T09:27:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-03-01T06:32:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":487,"height":714,"url":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/ff-4.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Sogolytics","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/","url":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/","name":"What\u2019s Done in the Dark - Sogolytics Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-06-22T09:27:45+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-01T06:32:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/137ad89cc093b0bb889c68e4b1825fb1"},"description":"Only Sogolytics guarantees truly anonymous surveys. By removing all electronic identifying information, your respondents are free to be completely honest.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/whats-done-in-the-dark\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"What\u2019s Done in the Dark . . . | Sogolytics"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/","name":"Sogolytics Blog","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/137ad89cc093b0bb889c68e4b1825fb1","name":"Sogolytics","url":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/author\/sogosurvey\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1557"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55457,"href":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1557\/revisions\/55457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sogolytics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}