Cultural and religious factors influence cheating behavior in the context of Wordle, a popular online word game, according to research published in Perspectives on Psychological Science. The study found that American states characterized by higher levels of religiosity and cultural tightness are less likely to engage in searching for answers to the game, suggesting a lower tendency to cheat among their populations.
Wordle is an online word puzzle game that has captured the imagination of millions since its introduction in October 2021. Created by Josh Wardle, the game presents a simple challenge: players must guess a five-letter word within six tries.
Each guess provides feedback in the form of colored tiles, indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position. What makes Wordle particularly intriguing is its format—there’s only one puzzle per day for all players, fostering a shared experience that is both competitive and communal.
Researchers Alexandra S. Wormley and Adam B. Cohen of Arizona State University noted that the widespread popularity of the game, along with its uniform daily challenge, presented a unique opportunity to study cheating behaviors in a controlled, yet naturalistic setting.
Unlike more severe forms of cheating, which can have significant ethical or legal consequences, cheating at Wordle is relatively benign. Yet, understanding why individuals might cheat in this context could provide broader insights into human behavior. Specifically, they aimed to investigate the role of religiosity and cultural tightness — a measure of how strictly communities adhere to social norms and the severity of penalties for deviating from these norms.
The primary source of data came from Google Trends, a tool that tracks the frequency and location of specific search terms over time. For this study, the researchers looked at searches related to Wordle answers, specifically terms like “Wordle answer,” “today Wordle,” and “Wordle word today.”
Wormley and Cohen collected data on these searches from March 7, 2021, to March 7, 2022. The frequency of these searches was used as an indicator of cheating because they imply that individuals were looking up the answers instead of solving the puzzle through the game’s interface.
To assess cultural tightness and religiosity, the researchers used modified indices and available statistical data. Cultural tightness was gauged using a version of an existing index that typically measures the strictness of social norms and the severity of punishment for deviating from these norms. However, for this study, the index was adjusted to exclude measures directly related to religiosity to avoid overlap. Religiosity was measured using data from Pew Research, which provided estimates on the percentage of adults in each state identifying as “highly religious.”
The researchers also used Twitter data to understand the broader context of Wordle gameplay. They analyzed tweets containing the word “Wordle” to estimate how actively people discussed or engaged with the game online. This was particularly useful to gauge the overall popularity and engagement with Wordle in various states, which could then be correlated with the cheating data from Google Trends.
Wormley and Cohen found a negative correlation between religiosity and cheating at Wordle: states with a higher percentage of individuals identifying as highly religious were less likely to search for the answers to the daily Wordle puzzles. This finding supports the notion that religious communities, which often emphasize moral and ethical standards, may have a deterrent effect on behaviors considered dishonest, even in seemingly trivial contexts like a word game.
Similarly, the researchers found that states characterized by cultural tightness also exhibited lower rates of cheating on Wordle. This relationship aligns with the idea that in tighter cultures, the social costs of deviating from accepted behavior (including cheating) are higher, thus discouraging such actions. This finding illustrates how social environment and cultural norms can influence individual behaviors on a large scale, even extending to online activities.
However, the researchers also highlighted some complexities in these relationships. While both religiosity and cultural tightness were individually correlated with reduced cheating, the interactions between these factors were not straightforward. When controlling for various socioeconomic and demographic variables, the relationship between cultural tightness and cheating was somewhat diminished. This suggests that other factors associated with tightness, such as education levels and political conservatism, might also play roles in influencing cheating behavior.
Additionally, the use of Google Trends and Twitter data provided a broad look at cheating behaviors but did not allow for a deep dive into the motivations behind these actions. While the data indicated less cheating in more religious and culturally tight states, it didn’t capture the individual reasons for searching Wordle answers, which could range from curiosity to a deliberate intent to deceive.
Thus, while the findings offer valuable insights into how cultural and religious contexts can impact behavior, they also open up questions about the underlying motives and personal circumstances that lead to cheating.
“Although we found a correlation between cultural features and group-level behaviors, more work is needed to explore the mechanisms that may drive these relationships,” the researchers concluded.