4 Reasons Why We Lie and Cheat

Let’s call it stretching the truth. We all do it every once in a while. People like to vilify bankers, but lying in small doses is part of the job description for many politicians, doctors and car salesmen. Dan Ariely from the WSJ recently affirmed this idea by taking a close look at why people cheat.

In short, very few people steal to a maximal degree, but many good people cheat just a little here and there. We fib to round up our billable hours, claim higher losses on our insurance claims, recommend unnecessary treatments and so on.

What’s the biggest lie you’ve told to get ahead? Do you think money is the greatest motivator to stretch the truth? Here are some situations in which Ariely says we are more likely to lie or cheat:

To test his theory, Ariely created a set of experiments using a “matrix test” where test subjects were given 5 minutes to solve the test and were told to count their correct answers on their own and then put their worksheets through a paper shredder at the back of the room. Interestingly, monetary incentives didn’t lead to more cheating, but there were a few factors that did.

1. We will cheat if we see others cheating around us. This is the case in politics. When one candidate stretches the truth about his opponent to make him look bad, it’s not surprising to see the opponent strike back in a similar manner.
2. Being reminded of the moral code reduces one’s propensity to cheat. Test subjects who were asked to read the 10 Commandments just before taking the matrix test were less likely to stretch the truth. This happened consistently, even for a group of self-declared atheists.
3. We will cheat if we think our “teammates” will benefit. “If my teammates benefit from my fudging the numbers, surely that makes me a virtuous person!”
4. We are more likely to lie on an application, insurance or tax form if we put our signature at the bottom of the form. Ariely found that having people put their signature at the top of the forms (before they filled in false information) rather than at the bottom (after the lying was done) was more likely to deter lying.

Most of the test subjects were young Americans, and perhaps the study would have been a little more predictive if it were cross-generational and cross-cultural. Maybe an older person, who grew up with rules of conduct, is less likely to lie than today’s typical college student. Still, the study raises an interesting question: Do you agree with these conclusions about what factors lead people to lie and cheat in the real world?