Would you cheat if you knew you could get away with it?
That's the question best-selling author Dan Ariely asks in his new book.
"The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty" talks about how we cheat in our everyday lives. Ariely says we cheat up to the level that allows us to benefit from cheating and still be seen as honest individuals.
Here are a few examples he uses in the book:
• The average golfer studied nudged the ball with a club 23% of the time, but it's far less likely a golfer would actually pick up the ball and move it, because there's no way to pretend that's not intentional cheating.
• When researchers placed six-packs of Coke and six $1 bills in dorm fridges, every Coke disappeared within 72 hours, but no one snatched the cash.
• A large insurance company told Ariely they suspect few people engage in outright fraud but many customers who lose property seem fine with exaggerating their losses by 10% to 15% on paper, so that 32-inch flat screen grows to 40 inches.
In the book, Ariely discusses why we cheat and what we should do about it.