  Previous experiments have explored the effects of gender and cognitive
reflection on dishonesty separately. To the best of our knowledge, no studies
have investigated potential interactions between these two factors. Exploring
this interaction is important because previous work found that males tend to be
both more deliberative than females. Therefore, it is possible that the gender
effect on dishonesty is moderated by cognitive reflection. Here we report a
large online experiment (N = 766) where subjects first have a chance to lie for
their benefit and then take a Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). We find a
significant interaction between gender and CRT score such that lack of
deliberation promotes honesty for men but not for women. Additional analyses
highlight that this effect is mainly driven by men whose answers in the CRT are
neither intuitive nor deliberative, who happen to be particularly honest in our
deception game.
