Reader Comments

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Electronic Piracy

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Historians and Academics

Reader Comments

Readers of The Cheating Culture have been sending in stories of their own cheating experiences. We encourage all readers to do so, and hopefully we will be able to post your story here as well. Additionally, please comment on the individual topic pages, as well as the blog, so that we can create an interactive discussion forum to analyze the impacts, causes, and solutions to the cheating culture.

Joe Peplow writes:

Virtually all of our man made problems have a leadership or lack of leadership component. In business, industry, and government, leaders with cracks in their moral will create a corrupt cultures. Honesty has to be nurtured within any organization - and rewarded. Whistle blowing should be encouraged and rewarded yet in our culture today the employee who takes the high road will be punished.

Good, honest leaders are hard to find these days. I don't think our education systems are teaching leadership skills these days - maybe because the academic community has its own lack of integrity problems.

Good leaders would make a big difference in the cheating culture.

Philip Branton writes:

"I have read Professor Callahan's excellent book and agree with the vast majority of his conclusions. One symptom of tolerance to the cheating culture that he does not, to my recollection, address is the burgeoning popularity of state-sponsored and supported gambling. The best example of this is, of course, the 'state lottery', in which 'the state'--quite literally--encourages its citizens to bet their money on what must be among the worst odds in any house, including slot machines. And these citizens are, as so often noted in Professor Callahan's treatise, among those least able to afford the lottery tickets. Then of course there is increasing tolerance for gambling in casinos, largely because of the voluminous tax revenues they can rake in.

Objections to gambling have traditionally taken religious/moral tones but the main objection I have to gambling -- state sponsored or otherwise -- is that it encourages poor financial behavior by those least able to afford it, let alone enabling people with psychological problems ('compulsive gamblers').

What has led to the shift in popular cultural and governmental attitudes toward gambling? The 'something for nothing mentality', of course..."

John Wilcox writes:

"There's a spate of advertising running on TV of late, glorifying cheating. The child version Hummer H2, running downhill and cutting corners and winning--buy this car because you don't have to play by the rules. That's the message, I guess.

I mentioned this ad in a group meeting today--everyone had another such situation. These seem new, yet they fit easily into the current attitude--win at any cost. Play fair? Nah! Money is all that matters.

This could, should, become an issue, a visible issue. Ask us, as readers of your website, to find and cite these mini messages of ethical misconduct, and make them an issue, a microcosm of the new moral crisis. At the very least, they are a symptom of the trend you talked about, nay, they are a trend, a visible, documentable trend.

We have to grab at straws to effect a regime change--whatever it takes. I do taxes for a living, and I see attempts at cheating on all sides. I've walked away from too many would be clients, I've tried to change some, and I've been able to keep a few honest. Older taxpayers are still fearful, though few willingly pay their fair share.

The key word is Fair. In today's world, that's a nasty 4 letter word, as is (in Georgia) evolution. Which is food for another letter."

Dan Cring writes:

In anthropology we use the cross-cultural approach in order to understand cultural differences by means of explanation. In the USA, we have the cultural ideal of "independence training" which promotes the individual (individualism) over the group (socialism). This individualism starts soon after our birth when the newborn is taken away from its mother and placed in a nursery (and later in a crib - that's why SIDS in common in the USA and not in other cultures). This individualism is further promoted throughout our lives during school (individual achievement awards), in sports (MVP), in entertainment (stars), in the military (medals) et cetera. What American child has not dreamed of being "famous"? And this is why our nation pioneered the individual transport called the "auto"mobile at the expense of the "socio"mobile (mass transit). This cultural characteristic permeates all parts of our society from government (one person, one vote), the
military (an Army of One?), and even our economic system (getting ahead and the profit motive).

The "up-side" of individualism is that the USA has pioneered "individual rights" here at home, and even around the world. The "down-side" of individualism is that the USA is short on social responsibility which is promoted by "dependence training". The Japanese culture is a good example where "socialism" is promoted over "individualism". And this helps to explain why crime rates differ significantly between these two modern societies.

It appears that this cultural characteristic of "independence training" helps us to explain what's going on with this phenomenon of cheating. It's not just for economic reasons that cheating occurs, but also in school, in sports, and even in marriages."

Tina Margolis writes:

"I am an adjunct instructor at Westchester Community College. One of the college-wide requirements for this course is to complete a library research project and write a paper based on this research. Rather than write the paper themselves (whether they have completed the research or not), a number of students, I believe, purchase papers from Internet paper mills.

The professional papers all sound the same more or less. These works certainly do not have the quirks that student writing has. Moreover, if one checks the sources -- a lengthy but fun process if one enjoys the detective work and has a passion for historical accuracy as I do -- then it is easy to fail the student based on his or her essay. There are zillions of inaccuracies in the "professional" papers -- from fabricated books to wrong page numbers to inaccurately worded quotes, and more. While it is not possible to prove plagiarism without access to sophisticated programs such as Turnitin.com (which my campus does not have but which I plan to request) if one simply double checks the research one finds very strange things.

In the future, that means the spring 2004 semester, I plan to have each student submit a photocopy of the articles, chapters, etc., that he or she will use for the paper. I am asking them to underline the quotes they plan to use.

I might add that at the beginning of next semester, as our first assignment, I plan to assign a paper on Who Cheats in School? How? Why? That is how I found your website. I going to ask students to do outside research and to pick an article in addition to our readings in class. I will assign a different article to each person. This assignment, hopefully, will establish a class culture that values original research and thought."

Roger Hauk writes:

"You left out the culture of Police. With budget problems in much of the nation the desire to investigate police "cheating" is creating a huge division in class privilege. Poor people, as always, are the victims of police cheating and only wealth, if you can litigate, determines if a crime has been committed. There is a book!"

John Emerson writes:

"There are different ways to spin the things you talk about.

A. What Fasteau and Lay did was the same kind of thing that ordinary people do, when for example they steal pencils from work. Everyone bends the rules a little. Let's not get all self-righteous about this. (I have heard exactly this argument used).

B. A lot of people think that they're in on the game when they're really the suckers. The cheap cynicism of people who run little scams here and there makes them unable to respond appropriately when big-time con-men rip them off for hundreds and thousands of dollars.

Paul Newman's movie "The Sting", for example, made crime look cute. All the nice, warm, good-hearted crooks gang up on the one bad, mean crook. There's a whole library of films about charming crooks. I'm convinced that politicians, especially free-market Republicans, deliberately use this cynicism -- "I can't blame someone who happens to break one of the millions of rules that the regulatory elite has dreamed up for us." We had a Republican Congressman from here in Oregon, Wes Cooley, who had been caught in something like a dozen lies, including sworn statements, by the time he finally resigned, and at the end he still had 20% support in the Republican primary. The guy could be a poster child for you."

Art Saville writes:

"Just a brief note. The book, at one point, applauded the defense industry for their strict adherence to ethics training. Well, that seems somewhat overdone.

For over 25 years I've been employed by a major defense contractor. Yes, we do have mandatory annual ethics training. However, the entire scope of this training seems to boil down to the following:
1) If it's against the law, it's not ethical.
2) If it violates corporate policy, it's not ethical.
3) If you have questions, ask the corporate lawyers....

In my opinion, this training has noting to do with ethics, but is only concerned with making sure that the company stays within the letter of the law. There are no actual issues of right or wrong, only legal or illegal. (Not that this surprises me...)

Reminds me of the old saying -
"Nobody these days can tell legal from illegal except the lawyers, and they can't tell right from wrong." (I only wish I could remember who to credit for this one....)"

Terrence writes:

"For decades I've been asking: Why do we have country club prisons? Could someone please tell me? Sending all criminals to the same prison is mandatory if you ever again utter the word 'equity.'"