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The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty
We assume that people indulge in crime because they rationalise the cost-benefit analysis of the situation and find committing crime to be a beneficial option. The author, however, argues that this assumption is incorrect and dishonest behaviour is induced, enhanced, decreased or impacted by several seemingly unrelated factors which we are most of the time not aware of ourselves. The interesting thing is even when we cheat or lie we tend to do so in such a way as to keep our image of an honest and upright person in our own eyes, intact. We justify our dishonesty to ourselves through different excuses and assumptions. The author illustrates this by citing examples of dishonest behaviour by doctors, bankers, academicians, golfers, creative people etc. The cleverly designed experiments done by the author and his team of researchers, differences between expected results and what results actually came up and, finally, the explanation and interpretation of results, in short, the basics of research methodology has been told as amazing and lucid stories in the book.
In the Biblical story, Jesus dared the crowd to throw stones on the poor woman who has committed adultery only if they have never committed a sin in their life. All of us have oftentimes cheated or lied or indulged in dishonest behaviour whether it is by using official stationary for personal use, by plagiarising or by misleading an innocuous client. The book is for those who are interested in knowing how and why we overlook the moral lessons and take the shortcut and how we can save ourselves from our own flexible justifications for committing crime.
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Cheating,
lying, dishonesty, corruption — all these tendencies are integral
part of human life. Moral codes, rules of ethical conduct, religious
commandments have been devised to guide us on the path of
righteousness. Yet time and again we find ourselves straying away,
falling into temptation and committing crime. The struggle to curb
these inferior instincts, harmful to the person, nation and the world,
is ever continuing. This book is an effort in that direction wherein
the author has, through his research, tried to unravel and understand
dishonesty and in that light has provided tips to create a world with
lesser moral degradation.
Clear
figures, tables, interesting anecdotes in boxes, quotations and
footnotes — all collaborate to provide the reader an intellectual as
well as refreshing read. The author writes in a personal tone and
shares several experiences that help to clarify and concretise the
abstract idea. This strategy keeps the reader hooked to the discovery
of new findings regarding the psycho-social aspects of dishonesty.