Why So Many of Us Lie, Cheat, and Steal

Would you cheat or steal if you could get away with it?

I was recently troubled by some studentscheating on my college course exams. Once I became aware of the cheating, I took steps to try to stop it, and I was surprised that a couple of

students continued to try to cheat even after I had informed the class of the severe penalties for cheating.

With a 30-plus year teaching career, this wasn’t the first time, of course. The worst cheating incident years ago was when fraternity members got together with hand-held copiers to systematically copy a final exam, piece-by-piece, knowing that there was a second final scheduled the next day. Most of the fraternity members planned to take the second final, after they received the stolen exam and had the answers. [When I found out hours after the first exam, I stayed up most of the night making a completely different final exam, and admit that I took some delight in seeing all the puzzled and frightened male faces in the large lecture hall flipping frantically through the pages of a brand new test].

I also read this past week(link is external) about severe cheating that occurs in on-line college courses – where sophisticated cheaters are able to get As in courses without learning anything at all, simply by figuring out how to beat the testing system. I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised. Research suggests that most of us, if in the right circumstances, would indeed lie, cheat, or steal.

The research of Duke University professor of psychology and behavioral economics, Dan Ariely, sheds some light on why so many students would cheat on exams (and why, if given the opportunity, most of us might do the same, or even steal a little money).