Cheating and Feeling Good About It - Way to Go!

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WHO ever first said "honesty is the best policy" clearly didn't anticipate the article, "The Cheater’s High: The Unexpected Affective Benefits of Unethical Behavior."

The upshot is that when people get away with cheating and there are no adverse effects on anyone else, they don't feel bad.

This does not apply to the types who pilfer ink pens and paper clips from work or who pop into Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts to get a straw for the homemade smoothie that they did not buy there or the people who help themselves to the orange-infused water at L'Occitane without a giving a thought to plopping down $46 for the Almond Milk Concentrate.


L'Occitane Almond Milk Concentrate. Photo from L'Occitane.

No, not these types. Instead, the ones who cheat on exams and who outright steal. The kind who fudge their timesheets and overinflate their accomplishments if a promotion is at stake. Indeed, they don't feel bad in the face of their mendacity. They feel good!

The article is published online in the American Psychological Association’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Read it and weep (or rejoice): http://www.bit.ly/qt54QV