Contents
INTRODUCTION: Why Is Dishonesty So Interesting?
From Enron to our own misbehaviors . . . A fascination with cheating . . . Becker’s parking problem and the birth of rational crime . . . Elderly volunteers and petty thieves . . . Why behavioral economics and dishonesty?
CHAPTER 1: Testing the Simple Model of Rational Crime (SMORC)
Get rich cheating . . . Tempting people to cheat, the measure of dishonesty . . . What we know versus what we think we know about dishonesty . . . Cheating when we can’t get caught . . . Market vendors, cab drivers, and cheating the blind . . . Fishing and tall tales . . . Striking a balance between truth and cheating.
CHAPTER 2: Fun with the Fudge Factor
Why some things are easier to steal than others . . . How companies pave the way for dishonesty . . . Token dishonesty . . . How pledges, commandments, honor codes, and paying with cash can support honesty . . . But lock your doors just the same . . . And a bit about religion, the IRS, and insurance companies.
CHAPTER 2B: Golf
Man versus himself . . . A four-inch lie . . . Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to take the mulligan . . . Schrödinger’s scorecard.
CHAPTER 3: Blinded by Our Own Motivations
Craze lines, tattoos, and how conflicts of interest distort our perception . . . How favors affect our choices . . . Why full disclosure and other policies aren’t fully effective . . . Imagining less conflicted compensation . . . Disclosure and regulation are the answers—or not.
CHAPTER 4: Why We Blow It When We’re Tired
Why we don’t binge in the morning . . . Willpower: another limited resource . . . Judgment on an empty stomach . . . How flexing our cognitive and moral muscles can make us more dishonest . . . Self-depletion and a rational theory of temptation.
CHAPTER 5: Why Wearing Fakes Makes Us Cheat More
The secret language of shoes . . . From ermine to Armani and the importance of signaling . . . Do knockoffs knock down our standards of honesty? . . . Can gateway fibs lead to monster lies? . . . When “what the hell” wreaks havoc . . . There’s no such thing as one little white lie . . . Halting the downward spiral.
CHAPTER 6: Cheating Ourselves
Claws and peacock tails . . . When answer keys tell us what we already knew . . . Overly optimistic IQ scores . . . The Center for Advanced Hindsight . . . Being Kubrick . . . War heroes and sports heroes who let us down . . . Helping ourselves to a better self-image.
CHAPTER 7: Creativity and Dishonesty: We Are All Storytellers
The tales we tell ourselves and how we create stories we can believe . . . Why creative people are better liars . . . Redrawing the lines until we see what we want . . . When irritation spurs us onward . . . How thinking creatively can get us into trouble.
CHAPTER 8: Cheating as an Infection: How We Catch the Dishonesty Germ
Catching the cheating bug . . . One bad apple really does spoil the barrel (unless that apple goes to the University of Pittsburgh) . . . How ambiguous rules + group dynamics = cultures of cheating . . . A possible road to ethical health.
CHAPTER 9: Collaborative Cheating: Why Two Heads Aren’t Necessarily Better than One
Lessons from an ambiguous boss . . . All eyes are on you: observation and cheating . . . Working together to cheat more? . . . Or keeping one another in line . . . Cheating charitably . . . Building trust and taking liberties . . . Playing well with others.
CHAPTER 10: A Semioptimistic Ending: People Don’t Cheat Enough!
Cheer up! Why we should not be too depressed by this book . . . True crime . . . Cultural differences in dishonesty . . . Politicians or bankers, who cheats more? . . . How can we improve our moral health?
Thanks