Size matters - when it comes to lies

A small lie appears trivial but it obviously violates moral commandments. We analyze whetherthe preference for others’ truth telling is absolute or depends on the size of a lie. In a laboratoryexperiment we compare punishment for different sizes of lies controlling for the resultingeconomic harm. We find that people are sensitive to the size of a lie and that this behavioralpattern is driven by honest people. People who lie themselves punish softly in any context.