The study ‘Intrinsic Honesty and the Prevalence of Rule Violations across Societies’  found that people from more corrupt societies were likely to be more dishonest than those from societies where rule-breaking is frowned upon.

The experiment was carried out in 23 different countries, which differ strongly in levels of corruption. More than 2,500 people were tested to see how honest they would be in a situation where people could lie without being found out

Take a look at the research paper by Simon Gaechter (CeDEx & NIBS Nottingham) and Jonathan Schulz (Yale) published by Nature, or read more details about the findings in a press release from the University of Nottingham.

Further media coverage of the research can be found online in The Telegraph, The Independent, The Atlantic, This is Money and Science magazine.