In the News (from The Wall Street Journal): “We like to believe that a few bad apples spoil the virtuous bunch. But research shows that everyone cheats a little—right up to the point where they lose their sense of integrity. …

“Over the past decade or so, my colleagues and I have taken a close look at why people cheat, using a variety of experiments and looking at a panoply of unique data sets—from insurance claims to employment histories to the treatment records of doctors and dentists. What we have found, in a nutshell: Everybody has the capacity to be dishonest, and almost everybody cheats—just by a little. Except for a few outliers at the top and bottom, the behavior of almost everyone is driven by two opposing motivations. On the one hand, we want to benefit from cheating and get as much money and glory as possible; on the other hand, we want to view ourselves as honest, honorable people. Sadly, it is this kind of small-scale mass cheating, not the high-profile cases, that is most corrosive to society. …

“Knowing that most people cheat—but just by a little—the next logical question is what makes us cheat more or less. …

“One thing that increased cheating in our experiments was making the prospect of a monetary payoff more ‘distant’ … Another thing that boosted cheating: Having another student in the room [in the experiment] who was clearly cheating. …

“Other factors that increased the dishonesty of our test subjects included knowingly wearing knockoff fashions, being drained from the demands of a mentally difficult task and thinking that ‘teammates’ would benefit from one’s cheating in a group version of the matrix task. …

“The results of these experiments should leave you wondering about the ways that we currently try to keep people honest. Does the prospect of heavy fines or increased enforcement really make someone less likely to cheat on their taxes, to fill out a fraudulent insurance claim, to recommend a bum investment or to steal from his or her company? It may have a small effect on our behavior, but it is probably going to be of little consequence when it comes up against the brute psychological force of ‘I’m only fudging a little’ or ‘Everyone does it’ or ‘It’s for a greater good.’…

“This experiment has obvious implications for the real world. While ethics lectures and training seem to have little to no effect on people, reminders of morality—right at the point where people are making a decision—appear to have an outsize effect on behavior.”

My Comment: Egoism lies consciously and unconsciously because it needs to see benefits for itself in everything, and only this counts. The correction is to change values. The value of honesty and the possibility of spiritual elevation, must become valued more highly than normal cheating. However, only striving for the highest reward, to become closer to the Creator, can protect from natural egoism.
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