Honesty being destroyed

Conscience malfunction … Jenny Clarke at her broiler farm near Central Mangrove with her honesty box, which she says no longer works as it is supposed to. Photo: Ben Rushton

Poultry farmers Jenny Clarke and her husband, Andrew, have experienced this kind of deceit all too often. For 10 years they've been selling chook poo, now $2.50 a bag, at their Central Mangrove farm gate. Once Mrs Clarke stood and chatted with someone who'd loaded 20 or so bags into a car and told her the money was in the box. She discovered their lie only after they'd driven off. People have deposited bottle tops and metal washers instead of coins, because ''they think someone is watching so it looks like they have put something in''.

Someone ''paid'' with a pair of homemade earrings wrapped in paper. More commonly, says Mrs Clarke, people pay, but less than the full amount: ''They might pay for five bags but take six or seven''.

Last week police were called to our local Woolworths Supermarket and arrested a young male for shoplifting. Staff had observed him stuffing a DVD from a display stand down the front of his trousers and attempting to leave without paying for it. - Note:

• The offender was "known" to the store.
• The offender had previously been barred from entering the store for similar shoplifting efforts.
• The offender was observed entering the store and was tracked by staff on CCTV and observed committing the offence which was also videotaped.

Quite obviously, all those events previously cited were deliberate and carried out with deceitful intent.


We have learnt over the years this unpalatable modern ''truth'' about dishonesty, now the subject of a book by best-selling US author and psychology professor Dan Ariely: everyone is capable of cheating. We all constantly seek the sweet spot where we can benefit from it without damaging our self image as reasonably honest individuals. Professor Ariely calls it ''the fudge factor''.

Dan Ariely (born April 29, 1968) is an Israeli American professor of psychology

and behavioral economics. He teaches at Duke University and is the founder

of The Center for Advanced Hindsight. “The Honest Truth about Dishonesty” 

HarperCollins

With an exhaustive series of experiments, Professor Ariely explores our amazing capacity for ''moral flexibility'' and the myriad ways we justify dishonest acts.

• People will defy CCTV to steal - CCTV is only useful in assisting proprietors and police in identifying the "who, where and when" involving any offence that has occurred.
• People are more likely to be deterred from cheating by a 'watchful eye' - a real person keeping a watch over their possible activities.
• People wearing counterfeit labels cheated more than those attired authentically, and were more likely to assume others were behaving unethically.
• People cheat more if they can put ''psychological distance'' between themselves and the action: for example surveyed golfers say it's much less morally troubling to cheat by moving the ball with a club than by hand.

We also cheat less if we have to sign up to a pledge of honour, Professor Ariely found.

Finally, bean counters take note: 

"workers are less likely to fudge their expenses if they have to sign their names at the top of the form instead of (or as well as) at the end."