Why We Cheat (Essay Sample)

Why We Cheat
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Introduction
Principally, cheating is the psychological state in which individuals justify dishonest behavior or deeds in order to get an easier way out of a given dilemma. In essence, cheating is an attribute of human behavior that allows people to deceive themselves about certain things in the need to create a better way of dealing with given life issues (Ciulla, Martin, & Solomon, 2007). Significantly, most people cheat so as to be on a level that they believe is where they socially qualify to be and when they fail to meet the conditions for such a state they use dishonesty to achieve the desired level.
In essence, the author argues that when people fail to question their moral standards then they are likely to lie a lot. Therefore, with people high in corporate hierarchy cheating is more likely to happen since they do not deal with money. Moreover, an experiment carried out by Dan Ariely shows that people are more liable to cheat when there is money involvement and even more when they think they are not taking anyone’s money (Zetter, 2009). Concurrently, using this example one can note that most people in corporations’ leadership who do not deal directly with money will cheat in stock options since morally they do not question their decisions.
In principal, research shows that people who reminisce on their moral standards in reference to their actions are less likely to cheat. In essence, when the society or the environment in which these individuals perform their duties does not get them to ask these moral questions then they will cheat. Moreover, the daily routine tasks tend not to influence or affect one’s moral compass thus to lead to individuals cheating and at last adopting this act as a new behavioral trait.
In essence, a whistleblower is a person who feels that it is enough, and some action must be taken against some malpractices that are unethical. Moreover, these are individuals who choose to stand firm on their beliefs and principles of what they consider to be right and wrong. Therefore, whistleblowers are the people who force individuals in positions of making a difference to do the right thing as it is expected of them and shy away from cheating or any other malpractice.
Significantly, Ariely’s explanation complicates the whistleblowers’ role in the sense that they are supposed to go against the norm and that according to Ariely is hard (Zetter, 2009). Moreover, individuals are influenced by society and the environment they live in, and whistleblowers’ role is to talk about the errors in such an ordinary society. Therefore, whistleblowers find it hard in doing what is expected of them since at times what needs to be changed is what society, in general, accepts as right. Furthermore, whistleblowers need to analyze the organization from outside so as to get what is wrong. However, doing such requires a lot of time and neutrality that is hard to get when one is in the same environment they are to analyze.
Principally, whistleblowers being individuals who try to speak up on the wrongs committed in an organization from within its internal environment it would be hard not to imagine them as mirrors (Zetter, 2009). Moreover, a mirror is a reflecting object that gives one a reflection of what he/she looks like without compromising on the details. Theref...