Expand Your Mind: Cheating for Success
by Miki Saxon
In our society success = money. As children we are taught to pursue success, so actions that bring success within our grasp are honed from childhood on and cheating is one of those actions. I’ve often focused on the prevalence of cheating in schools, how it’s rationalized and where it leads.
That rationalization is succinctly explained by a kid attending a premier high school.
“It’s like, ‘I’ll keep my integrity and fail this test’ — no. No one wants to fail a test,” he said, explaining how he and others persuaded themselves to cheat. “You could study for two hours and get an 80, or you could take a risk and get a 90.”
In short, they wanted success, which meant getting into the “right” school; of course, getting into the right school rarely spells the end of cheating.
Over and over again, students told us that they admired good work and wanted to be good workers. But they also told us they wanted — ardently — to be successful. They feared that their peers were cutting corners and that if they themselves behaved ethically, they would be bested. And so, they told us in effect, “Let us cut corners now and one day, when we have achieved fame and fortune, we’ll be good workers and set a good example.”
Of course, the drive for success doesn’t end with school; if anything it increases. But many people have a naïve belief that cheating is found more often in business and politics, while the world of science is one of higher integrity—would it were actually true.
In the new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, two scientists and a medical communications consultant analyzed 2,047 retracted papers in the biomedical and life sciences. They found that misconduct was the reason for three-quarters of the retractions for which they could determine the cause.
Even 50 years of integrity, including 30 with the FBI, isn’t protection against that lure.
“For 30 years I’ve sacrificed to get to this point.” But his exit strategy, according to federal prosecutors, included his participation in a multimillion-dollar international scheme that involved the lieutenant colonel in charge of the United States Army’s Special Forces operations in Afghanistan and a Boston-based defense contractor.
Cheating is rife in the world of sports and that includes fishing—and I don’t mean the stories about one that got away.
Those who run, monitor and compete in tournaments said that cheating scandals have tarnished the wholesome image of fishing and ruined the final rankings in many competitions, as people handed trophies, cash and other prizes were later found to have cheated.
Cheating often involves taking advantage, whether of circumstances or people—or both. Just look what can happen to people whose circumstances force them to rent a computer instead of buying one.
DesignerWare, a Pennsylvania-based software maker, to create a program that secretly captured “webcam pictures of children, partially undressed individuals, and intimate activities at home.” This included people who while engaging in sexual activities in their homes were being recorded on their rental computers. (…) In a news release issued by the F.T.C., Jon Leibowitz, the agency’s chairman, said the software had also captured consumers’ private e-mails, bank account information and medical records. In some instances the software was able to capture Social Security numbers, medical records and doctor’s names. Most disturbing, the webcam captured pictures of children.
Flickr image credit: pedroelcarvalho
November 13th, 2012 at 2:21 pm
Thanks for the heads-up, but which links? I checked the links in the post and they worked.
May 16th, 2014 at 1:16 am
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