Everybody has lied at least once in their lifetime, and if they say they haven’t, they’re lying. For generations, scholars around the globe have been wondering why and how dishonesty comes so naturally to humans of all ages. It’s been a puzzling, psychological epidemic and several people have tried to put together the pieces to its solution. When author Colleen Wenke was freshman in college, during 1998, she wrote “Too Much Pressure”, an article investigating students and their link to cheating in school. In her argument, she states that because students are more “goal-oriented”, they’re willing to push aside proper morals to get into highly praised and prestigious universities. Although I do agree that the pressure to be accepted into private universities is overwhelming at times, people cheat not just because they wish to stride towards their achievements, but because of the modern academic environment and justified social behavior.
When comparing the academic environments between past generations and now, one can see many fallible features in the current system. In the article, “Cheating in College: Where It Happens, Why Students Do It, and How to Stop It”, one of the main five reasons students cheat is because they don’t respect the places they are receiving their education, “Institutional apathy likely cause many people to cheat as they do not see the academic environment as one that deserves their honesty. Just like cheating in Monopoly is easier to justify than tax evasion, if students don’t believe their university deserve high standards then they may see no reason to follow all the rules about grading.
Lack of respect for the collegiate institution should also prevent students from reporting instances of dishonesty they see around them.” Students can sense when departments of education become more interested in their rank in state test scores than their mastery of the concept. As institutions become increasingly corrupt, students eventually lose their respect and values of trust in them. This loss of high opinion becomes evident as students cheat their way into boards of recognition and state qualifications as they assume these colleges respect the students as much as the students respect the colleges.
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This attitude is eventually instilled in all of the young scholars in a particular academic environment and when catching another student copying another’s work, it is either fear of the accusation of betrayal or a mutual level of understanding that causes them to turn a blind eye to the dishonest act. When asked, most students will agree that most schools have evolved into a curriculum of self-reliance instead of dependence on their mentors, “Currently, teachers assess students’ ability to reproduce examples and mimic lessons rather than display a mastery of the concept,” (Lahey, “I Cheated All Throughout High School”).
Jessica Lahey, a teacher herself, even admits to the fact that modern-day educators are testing students on how well they’re able to copy the techniques they were taught instead of understanding and applying them when necessary. When students are confused and left on their own, they resort to what they consider the best option to maintaining their grade: cheating. Now this isn’t to put the all blame on the teachers, but the increasing laziness in the manners of instructors in these environments perpetuate students’ temptations and their feelings of need to make immoral choices in order to salvage their academic reputations.
Students adopt a mindset that cheating is justified through social behavior across all aspects and platforms. When talking to an experienced adult, they’ll explain to young individuals that if they retain moral values and study hard to get into a good university, they’ll be successful. But when one takes a look at images of success today, there is a plethora of sources stating that these “idols” and “self-made millionaires ” are not honest, “… Wall Street titans, politicians, and other high-visibility leaders who cheat -and especially when they get away with it- can have an impact,” (Kolker, “Cheating Upwards”).
When innocent and naïve individuals are confronted by these examples of the harsh reality that success doesn’t always mean acting on one’s moral code, they are more inclined to model after these morally flawed but highly-successful individuals. Students are taught through society and it’s mannerisms that cheating is justified in the average classroom because these businessmen and women have made it to the top of the corporate platform by deceiving those around them. Dan Ariely, the creator of the documentary, “(Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies”, conducted an experiment in his documentary that proved that people were more likely to misbehave in groups. The experiment was conducted at Carnegie Mellon University and Ariely had two actors-one wearing a University of Pittsburgh sweatshirt and the other a Carnegie Mellon sweatshirt- sit on the opposite sides of a room and noticeably cheat on a test among other Carnegie students.
Analysts found that the side with the Pittsburgh actor had less cheating and the side with the Carnegie Mellon actor had more cheating activity. When students saw that one their peers was cheating on a test, they-considering themselves equals- assumed that cheating wasn’t as wrong as it seemed. People used the behavior of one dishonest individual to justify their own dishonesty. The test-takers on the other side however noticed that somebody from another school was cheating and-not considering themselves as equal peers-did not cheat because they did not belong to the same social group. This environment we surround ourselves in dismisses the guilt that overcomes us when duping others.
Many individuals -primarily of the youth -have the idea that cheating stemmed from the fault of those trusted with educating future generations. Although they play a part in this mass epidemic, they aren’t 100% to blame. Cheating is a choice made primarily by the guilty party. If one understands the moral detriment of cheating, then they could just as easily look for guidance in other resources and take the high road. One must take responsibility for their dishonesty instead of putting their own academic prosperity before the moral obligation one owes to their peers and mentors.
Lying doesn’t only harm the liar, but also the people around them. We all claim to be people of just values and characters and those with strong attributes don’t commit immoral acts. However, if cheating is an immoral act, then we can’t claim to be people of sound moral values if we have committed immoral acts. But even when people claim to be good, they still cheat for bizarre and complicated reasons. People feel more inclined to cheat because of a self-reliant academic environment and justifications stemming from social behavior. Cheating remains an important issue today because if the amount of cheaters continue to increase, one day, the negative impact will be overwhelming to the human population. Although it’s hard to resist the urge to cheat, it is a stark act of dishonesty and we as a society must work together to teach one another to be better.
