Ticket inspectors are a regular presence on many modes of public transport.  The logic is clear: not only do they perform a practical role of checking the tickets of passengers but they also deter people from trying to travel without a ticket.

New research from The French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in the Groupe d’Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Etienne (GATE), and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice explores whether that is actually the case.

Unintended consequences

To explore any possible unintended consequences of ticket inspection, the researchers conducted a large-scale experiment on the streets of Lyon.  On a normal weekday, outside of rush hour, professional actors would enter a bus or tram in pairs dressed as ticket inspectors.

They were joined by research assistants, who made a note of the number of passengers who validated their ticket after seeing the inspectors.  They then tested the honesty of passengers by targeting one particular passenger and claiming to have found a €5 banknote on the ground and claiming the targeted passenger had dropped it.

“One third of the passengers who had validated their ticket subsequently claimed ownership of the banknote. Surprisingly, that percentage jumped to 50% if a team of ticket inspectors had previously controlled the people on the bus” the researchers say. “This indicates that inspections can influence our perception of how widespread dishonest behavior in society is. In other words, the more ticket inspectors get on board, the more passengers perceive that there are dishonest people around. In fact, a plausible explanation is that honest people claimed ownership of the €5 banknote in an effort to conform to prevailing dishonesty, with a negative unexpected consequence or spillover effect.”

Affecting our honesty

The researchers believe their work is the first to show that ticket inspections appear to have an effect on the honesty of passengers.  Indeed, the experiment showed that 53% of people who had not validated their tickets subsequently claimed the money, whereas 67% of those who were prompted to validate their ticket by the presence of the inspector.

“This study does not recommend eliminating inspections,” the researchers explain, “but it indicates that sanctioning dishonest behavior in public might not be the best way to discourage such behavior. Other actions might be more effective, such as more discrete inspections carried out in smaller groups and in civilian clothing. It is important that actions that are meant to encourage honest behavior do not end up promoting dishonesty. In order to study the effects of a policy, in fact, we need to look beyond a specific situation.”