Intro
Wishful blindness is a lot more common than pure dishonesty - it is when someone knowingly stays oblivious to dishonesty occurring
Becker’s theory (SMORC) is that decisions about dishonesty are based on a cost-benefit analysis
An increase of police and punishments won’t necessarily decrease dishonesty
SMORC isn’t necessarily true because people have internal morality that also governs their decisions
Taking little by little is much more common than someone taking a huge amount
I know for a fact that I have looked the other way when something dishonest was going on just so that we could benefit, and at the time my conscience was convincing me that it wasn’t cheating. So I can understand how common wishful blindness really is.
I’m certain that I don’t weigh the costs and benefits on everything that I do, so I tend to agree with Ariely’s theory of internal morality being more plausible than SMORC
Something that I thought of about the stealing bit by bit part was the whole idea of pyramid schemes, where you take little by little from certain people and make huge amounts of profit while doing so.
Chapter 1
Does a study on how students cheat using the matrix experiment
Finds that many cheat by a little but few cheat by a lot
When more money got involved the amount of cheating dropped (internal morality)
When people were less likely to be caught the level of cheating remained the same
The thought of getting caught doesn’t really affect when someone might cheat
Behavior
What is deception? Deception is misleading, misguiding, dishonest, cheat and fraud. It is anything that turns someone from the truth of a matter? Could it be the way the words one say is brought across to one's hearing? According to Howard Thurman, deception is the oldest technique used by the weak to protect them. Mr. Thurman also provides illustrations of creatures in what way they use the system. I must agree to we all have a wall of defensive we put up against people. I would also say that does not mean that doing so is okay all the time. So many times we as people use this technique at the wrong times to avoid the truth at times. Although reading the story of the blind man that was killed by a law-enforcement officer stood out to me.
Even in our modern age we do this to our enemies and governments do this to its citizens and other countries, but even regular citizens do it too. Especially when a child tells their parent, they hate them. Once the lines of truth and fiction were clear and apart they are now closer to each other than ever. In The post-truth era : dishonesty and deception in contemporary life, it is pretty much is full of the deceit of others. In a way so people do it for fun.
The idea of cheating to attain rewards is no new concept. Throughout history, people have performed actions that contradict their morals in order to advance in society. Leaders, parents, and even children have taken shortcuts that strike at their integrity. In recent times, cheating has become more prominent than ever before. The concepts of honesty, fairness, and morality are not enforced, therefore, deception, fraud, and dishonesty prevail in the shadows. In Cheating Culture, written by David Callahan, the author addresses the issue of lying, deceit, and trickery in today's world, while also recognizing a change in the near future is within the people's grasp.
Schroth offers a solid explanation for why cheating occurs. He claims that “the underlying reason students . . . cheat is that
readers several examples as to why it is never a good idea to start lying and trying to cheat your
In chapter 1, Levitt and Dubner describe how many people in different cultures and walks of life, which are otherwise inclined to be honest, find subtle ways of cheating to advance their position or increase monetary awards when incentives are strong enough. The authors define an incentive as “a means of urging people to do more of a good thing or less of a bad thing,” and identify three varieties of incentives. Economic incentives are those, which a person responds to in the marketplace. Social incentives motivate people to respond in a certain way because they care or are worried about how they will be viewed by others. Moral incentives appeal to a person’s sense of right versus wrong. Three case studies of the
Our daily life is effortlessly painted by our ignorance and own deceit and self-deception. Our most prized possession, language, not only strengthens our ability to lie, but also greatly extends it scope. According to the book “The Folly of Fools – The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life,” written by Robert Trivers, we as humans lie to ourselves to better lie to others. In this book, deceit and self-deception are analyzed from different perspectives of life and different perspectives scientifically. The main topics discussed are the evolutionary logic of self-deception, neurophysiology and levels of imposed self-deception, the psychology of self-deception, and self-deception and the structure of social sciences. In the text to follow, I will discuss each category in detail in hopes to better understand why as humans we are deceitful not only to others, but also to ourselves as well.
I have experienced dishonesty through so-called friends, people that I thought I knew, and myself, but I never considered why. Everyone could come up with an excuse in their favor to lie, but lies are ultimately created from getting caught with a problem. No one wants things to go wrong in their life, but when it does, staying out of trouble would seem reasonable, and lying may seem like the best way out. However, it takes a lot of work to get away with stretching the truth, because more lies have to be created to cover up the first one. Along with making up more lies, technology could be used to one’s advantage when it comes to getting away with dishonest things.
The link between morality and human nature has been a progressive reoccurring theme since ancient times (Prinz, 2008). Moral development is a characteristic of a person’s general development that transpires over the course of a lifetime. Moral development is derived by a wide variety of cultural and demographic factors that appear to influence morally relevant actions. Turiel (2006) defined morality as an individuals “prescriptive judgments of justice, rights, and welfare pertaining to how people ought to relate to each other.” Individuals’ moral judgments are frequently considered to be a product of culturally specific controls that provide a framework for behavioral motivations that are sensitive to the effects of gender, education, religion and politics (Banerjee, Huebner & Hauser, 2010). While several approaches have been utilized to examine the interaction of multivariate contributors to fundamental moral differences such as: disputes about family life, sexuality, social fairness, and so on, research has suggested that ideological considerations have provided a potent and diverse explanation for the polarization of contrasting views (Weber & Federico, 2013).
Without a distinct framework, ethical egoism fails as a moral theory to assist moral decision making because it endorses the animalistic nature of humanity, fails to provide a viable solution to a conflict of interest, and is proved to be an evolutionary unstable moral strategy.
At eighteenth century, the cost of increasing development of capitalism is anomie: people chasing material life insanely even sacrifice others’ benefits. Because of this, Adam Smith, a successful philosopher and economist, released that the original morality principle was not suitable for that society anymore, and it needed to build another new theory system to suit the developing society. He wrote two masterpieces that proposed his ideas: The Theory of Moral Sentiments, which discusses the human development by analysing the human emotion, and The Wealth of Nations, which summarises the development of capitalism and it is also a foundation for today’s economy. This essay will analyse the self-interest, plays as a motivator role in morality and economy field, and benefits the development in that society. Moreover, will suggest some limitations of Smith’s idea.
James Rachels' article, "Morality is Not Relative," is incorrect, he provides arguments that cannot logically be applied or have no bearing on the statement of contention. His argument, seems to favor some of the ideas set forth in cultural relativism, but he has issues with other parts that make cultural relativism what it is.
What is the aim of moral (ethical) theory that you learned from the reading? Elaborate on this by explaining how you think that having a clearer understanding of ethics can affect your life.
Deception According to Hyman (1989) deception implies that an agent acts or speaks so as to induce a false belief in a target or victim. Deception can occur in everyday life. Whether it is telling someone they look nice or not telling them that they look fat. This is an important process for forming relationships and general social interaction.
I believe that self deception is possible. I believe that individuals have the ability to deceive themselves. Take for example that Sid a college student is very fond of Rose, a college classmate with whom he often studies. Wanting it to be true that