Can we Trust Consumers' Survey Answers when Dealing with Insurance Fraud?: Evidence from an Experiment

Consumer surveys (e.g., questionnaires, telephone surveys) are important means to measure the acceptability and willingness to commit insurance fraud as well as related influencing factors. However, for such a sensitive issue, it is unclear to what extent individuals' stated attitudes correspond to actual behavior. We use a two-stage within-subject procedure that consists of an experiment and a questionnaire. In the experiment, participants are incentivized and have the opportunity to commit fraud by claiming losses that have not occurred or by exaggerating occurred losses. When comparing participants' behavior in the lab experiment with their answers to a standard survey, we do not find a strong correlation between self-stated attitudes toward insurance fraud and behavior in the experiment.