UC Irvine

This dissertation exams how psychology theory can be implemented into experimentaleconomics and studies the effects of human cognitive activities on their economics behaviors. It also studies how people react to job applicants with misdemeanor records and how economics outcomes can affect lying behaviors. The data used for this dissertation include self-collected data from laboratory experiments and publicly available data from U.S. government agencies. In the first chapter, I show that people with anxious attachment style tend to make economics decisions appealing to others yet people with avoidant attachment style care more about their own economics well-beings. In the second chapter, I show that marijuana possession-related misdemeanor significantly hinders one’s employment outcomes and expungement could help the situation. Although the legalization of marijuana is still an on-going process, without expunging the previous misdemeanor records related to marijuana, the legalization itself is not enough to improve the employment outcomes. In the third chapter, I show that constant moral reminders decrease dishonest behaviors whereas higher rewards lead to more deception. Moral reminders can only work to certain extent and as the rewards go higher, the effect of moral reminders gradually diminish.