You might have thought yourself or someone around you as a completely honest person, but you might have to change your mind after reading this article because according to a new research almost everyone, everyone in this world can become dishonest, if given the opportunity.
The famous book “The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty” , written by Dan Ariely, helps in explaining a lot about this behavior of people.
The author Dan Ariely narrates a story his student, Peter, told him that when Peter locked him out of his house. He called on the locksmith, who opened the lock in barely a minute, causing Peter to wonder why there weren’t more robberies if a lock was so easy to pick. On asking the locksmith, he told him that locks are only for those honestly-dishonest people who will only tend to try your door if it had no lock. While as far as the professional thieves are concerned, those locks are no meaning to them.
Another person tested this by setting a basic matrix task to College students: In which each student is given a sheet of paper containing a series of 20 different matrices and is told to find in each of the matrices two numbers that add up to 10 in a total of 5 minutes(control situation).
As observed, an average student solved around 4 matrices per 5 minutes. While when they implemented a condition in which the subjects are told to count their correct answers on their own and then put their work sheets through a paper shredder at the back of the room making it easier for them to cheat, the students became quite smarter solving around 6 matrices per 5 minutes. This experiment clearly shows that each person is capable of cheating if he gets the chance.
Are you honestly an honest person or will you gracefully take the opportunity for cheating?