The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty

Fedorikhin, Sasha, 99–100

Feynman, Richard, 165

financial crisis of 2008, 83–85, 192, 207, 234, 246–47

financial favors, aesthetic preferences and, 77

financial services industry:

anonymous monitoring and, 234–35

cheating among politicians vs., 243

conflicts of interest in, 83–85, 93, 94

government regulation of, 234

fishing, lying about, 28

Frederick, Shane, 173

friends, invited to join in questionable behavior, 195

fudge factor theory, 27–29, 237

acceptable rate of lying and, 28–29, 91

distance between actions and money and, 34–37

getting people to cheat less and, 39–51

infidelity and, 244

rationalization of selfish desires and, 53

stealing Coca-Cola vs. money and, 32–33

Gazzaniga, Michael, 164–65

Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), 219–20

generous behavior, 23–24

Get Rich Cheating (Kreisler), 14

Gilovich, Tom, 250, 263–64

Gino, Francesca, 45, 104, 123, 127, 131, 145, 170, 184, 197, 225, 234–35, 242, 258–59

Glass, Ira, 6

Gneezy, Ayelet, 177, 257–58

golf, 55–65

cheating by “average golfer” vs. study participants and, 63–64

mistallying score in, 61–64

moving location of ball in, 58–59, 63

mulligans in, 60–61, 63–64

self-monitoring in, 56–57

survey on cheating in, 57–64

government regulations, 234

grandmothers, sudden deaths of, at exam time, 106–8

gray matter, 169–70

Green, Jennifer Wideman, 117

grocery shopping, ego depletion and, 109, 112–13

group or team work, 220–23

performance unaffected by, 233

possible benefits of, 223

predominance of, in professional lives, 217–18, 235

social utility and, 222–23

see also collaborative cheating

Grüneisen, Aline, 210–11, 257

guilt, self-inflicted pain and, 250–52

Harford, Tim, 3–4

Harper’s Bazaar, 117–18

Harvard Medical School, 82

Harvey, Ann, 75

Henn, Steve, 209

heretics, external signaling of, 120

Hinduism, 25

honesty threshold, 130–31

honor codes, 41–45, 204

ideological organizations, 232n

“I knew it all along” feeling, 149

illegal businesses, loyalty and care for customers in, 138–39

impulsive (or emotional) vs. rational (or deliberative) parts of ourselves, 97–106

cognitive load and, 99–100

ego depletion and, 100–106

exhaustion and, 97–98

Inbar, Yoel, 250, 264

infectious nature of cheating, 191–216, 249

bacterial infections compared to, 192–93

in class, 195–97

collaborative cheating in relation to, 221–22

Congress members’ misuse of PAC money and, 208–10

corporate dishonesty and, 192, 207–8

cost-benefit analysis and, 201–3, 205

essay mills and, 210–13

matrix task and, 197–204

positive side of moral contagion and, 215–16

regaining ethical health and, 214–15

slow and subtle process of accretion in, 193–94, 214–15

social norms and, 195, 201–3, 205–7, 209

social outsiders and, 205–7

vending machine experiment and, 194–95

infidelity, 244–45

“in good faith” notion, 219–20

Inside Job, 84–85

insurance claims, 49–51

intelligence:

creativity vs., as predictor of dishonesty, 172–77

measures of, 173–75

IQ-like tests, cheating and self-deception on, 145–49

certificates emphasizing (false) achievement and, 153–54

increasing awareness of cheating and, 156–57

individuals’ tendency to turn a blind eye to their own failures and, 151

IRS, 47–49

Islam, 249

Israel, cheating in, 241

Italy, cheating in, 242

Jerome, Jerome K., 28

Jobs, Steve, 184

Jones, Bobby, 56

Jones, Marilee, 136

Judaism, 45, 249

judges, exhausted, parole decisions and, 102–3

junk food, exhaustion and consumption of, 97–98

Keiser, Kenneth, 135

Kelling, George, 214–15

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C., 6–7

Kirk, Ulrich, 75

Kreisler, Jeff, 13–14

Kubrick, Stanley, 150–51

Landis, Floyd, 155

Larez, Thomas, 152

law firms, overstating of billable hours in, 35–37

lawyers, conflicts of interest and, 93

Lay, Kenneth, 2

left brain, 164–65

Legend of Bagger Vance, The, 55–56

Less Stress, More Success (Jones), 136

Levav, Jonathan, 102

lobbyists, governmental, 77–78, 94

locks, as protection from mostly honest people, 38

Loewenstein, George, 89

Logic of Life, The (Harford), 3–4

long-term relationships with service providers, 228–31

Lord of the Rings, The (Tolkien), 223

loyalty, in illegal businesses, 138–39

Luce, Mary Frances, 229, 259–60

lying:

acceptable rate of, 28–29

dressing above one’s station as, 120–21

to ourselves, 141–61; see also self-deception

pathological, brain structure and, 168–70

publicly, capacity for self-deception and, 153–54

white lies and, 159–61

Madoff, Bernie, 173, 192

Maharabani, Eynav, 21, 24–26, 258

Marvel, William, 152

Marx, Groucho, 1

matrix task, 15–23

aggressive cheaters and, 239

cheating one step removed from money in (token condition), 33–34

with close supervision, 226–27

with collaborative element, 225–28

concerns about standing out and, 22–23

control and shredder conditions in, 17–18

cultural differences and, 240–43

ego depletion and, 106

fake products and, 125–26

honor codes and, 41–44

infectious nature of cheating and, 197–204

with moral reminders, 39–44, 46–47

self-paying condition in, 20, 21

sign-at-the-top vs. sign-at-the-bottom conditions in, 46–47