Cheating, Corruption, and Concealment

"Dishonesty is ubiquitous in our world. The news is frequently filled with high-profile cases of corporate fraud, large-scale corruption, lying politicians, and the hypocrisy of public figures. On a smaller scale, ordinary people often cheat, lie, misreport their taxes, and mislead others in their daily life. Despite such prevalence of cheating, corruption, and concealment, people typically consider themselves to be honest, and often believe themselves to be more moral than most others. This book aims to resolve this paradox by addressing the question of why people are dishonest all too often. What motivates dishonesty, and how are people able to perceive themselves as moral despite their dishonest behaviour? What personality and interpersonal factors make dishonesty more likely? And what can be done to recognize and reduce dishonesty? This is a fascinating overview of state-of-the-art research on dishonesty, with prominent scholars offering their views to clarify the roots of dishonesty"-- "People can be dishonest creatures. Many exaggerate their achievements, downplay their moral failures, lie about the number of hours they have put into a collaborative project, and cheat on their spouses. When reporting income taxes, many people are tempted to strategically "forget" sources of income. Treasurers of professional organizations are found to transfer collective funds to their private account. Also prominent people in society are regularly caught performing dishonest behavior. The past decade has seen various instances of high-profile corporate fraud cases, in which powerful managers embezzled large sums of money, or deliberately misrepresented their profits to stakeholders. Politicians that publicly stand up for traditional family values have been discovered in shady hotel rooms with prostitutes. Prolific scientists have committed plagiarism or data fraud. In fact, at the moment of writing this chapter, the FIFA corruption scandal is still unfolding, and many high-ranked officials have been arrested under the charge of accepting bribes when allocating important soccer tournaments to competing countries. Clearly, dishonesty is part of human nature, and can be found in all layers of society"--