Who said there's no such thing as a free lunch? Customers' dark triad traits predict abuse of food refund policies

Abstract

Customers may abuse the refund policies of online food delivery services. Given restrictions on returning online food orders and high levels of consumer power, customers who falsely claim an order was missing, damaged, or incorrect may receive both their original food order and a full refund. In an online study, we surveyed 197 food-delivery service customers regarding their refund fraud behavior and Dark Triad personality traits (i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy). The Dark Triad predicted fraudulent refund claims, the frequency of previously placed false refund claims, its perceived acceptability, and the likeliness of placing one in the future. Moreover, we also found evidence that individuals with high Dark Triad traits were more likely to engage in refund fraud when the perceived cost to the food delivery company was high.