Cheating can be found everywhere these days. Whether in school, sports, business, politics or taxes, cheating it seems, is as much a part of our culture as baseball or apple pie. But it's not just in our culture that cheating abounds. Around the world, the practice appears to be reaching epidemic levels.
But what exactly constitutes cheating? And why, if we can all agree that it's wrong, do so many of us engage in it? Have we reached a point where not cheating unfairly subjects us to a disadvantage our less honest peers get to avoid? It's a truly disheartening prospect; that in order simply to keep our competitive heads above water we must resort to such practices.
And it's not just the wayward individual that cheats anymore. Recent times have exposed a dramatic rise in institutional cheating as well-- cases in which bad behavior becomes standard practice for professionals presiding over both boardrooms and classrooms alike.
This hour we'll take an honest stab at understanding our dishonest ways and ask if anything can be done to put us back on the track of behavioral integrity.
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GUESTS:
- David Callahan- An author, lecturer and co-founder of the think tank Demos. He’s written extensively about American values, business, and public policy. He is author of many books including The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead
- Dan Ariely- Professor of psychology and a behavioral economics at Duke university. Ariely's TED talks have been watched nearly eight million times. He is the author of The New York Time’s bestsellers Predictably Irrational and The Honest Truth about Dishonesty
- Michael Smithee- President of Smithee Associates which focuses on researching and addressing critical issues in international education. He’s served as President of the international center at Syracuse University. He’s the author of Applying Intercultural Concepts To Academic Integrity and the co-author of U.S. Classroom Culture
MUSIC:
- "Cheating and Lying" By T.K. Soul
- "Plagiarizer" By Cleen and elePHANT Gerald
- "Your Cheatin' Heart" By Fats Domino
Colin McEnroe and Betsy Kaplan contributed to this show.
