It’s not something that’s at all new within the human race, but there seems to be a new focus on the subject of honesty … perhaps because it’s again time for a presidential election, where it’s not easy at times to find the real truth on an issue.
Reverend Mark Adams, pastor of Redland Baptist Church in Rockville, Maryland, recently weighed in on the matter:
Do you ever wonder why people cheat, or feel tempted to cheat, on expense reports, taxes, exams, and other endeavors?
According to articles that appeared this summer in both Forbes magazine as well as The Wall Street Journal, a series of 2012 research studies at four major universities proves that cheating often provides psychological rewards that motivate people to act unethically. Cheating can even give many people what researchers have labeled a “cheater’s high.
In one experiment, researchers from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business asked subjects to predict how they’d feel about cheating. As the researchers had expected, most of the subjects predicted they’d feel bad about this sort of behavior. Then they conducted an experiment in which 179 subjects had to unscramble as many words as possible in a 15 minute period, earning money for each word completed. When the subjects were offered a chance to cheat, 41 percent of the participants did so. Right after the test, the participants took a test that measured how good they felt at the moment. Surprisingly, “[The] cheaters reported higher positive feelings [than the non-cheaters] (such as excitement) and no difference in negative feelings (such as guilt) than non-cheaters.”
A second study with 205 participants revealed even more disturbing results. Once again, the participants were given a test that allowed the chance to cheat. And once again, the cheaters felt better than the non-cheaters. But this time the cheaters also rated themselves higher on how often they felt “…clever, capable, accomplished, satisfied, and superior.” In other words, they not only felt good about cheating; they also felt smug about it. The article in Forbes magazine concluded, “[We can] add this [study] to the pantheon of research undermining the idea that humans are good at heart….And we wonder why Wall Street investment banks, stocked with the smartest minds from Ivy League schools, all plunged lemming-like off the same cliff in the credit crisis?”
Of course, the Bible reported on the dangerous pleasures of sin long before these studies were done. God’s book warns us that temptation is a very powerful—even pleasurable thing. For example, Psalm 52:4 speaks to those who lie: “You LOVE every harmful word, oh you deceitful tongue!”
Let’s face it. Sin is fun. It wouldn’t be so popular if it weren’t. But the Bible tells us that the good feelings it brings are temporary and destructive. Isaiah 5:21 says, “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.” and Proverbs 14:12 cautions: “There is a way that SEEMS RIGHT to man…but in the end it leads to death.”
Remember, God’s way is ALWAYS best!
© 2012 Mark Adams
If you wish to study this subject further, you may want to read a new book titled “The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty … How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves” by Dan Ariely. In his review of the book for the Washington Post newspaper, Michael S. Roth states: “Ariely sees two conflicting motivations at work in dishonest behavior. On the one hand, we want to view ourselves as honorable, and on the other hand, we want to get as much stuff as possible. We want the benefits of cheating, and we want to see ‘ourselves as honest, wonderful people.’ So we fudge. We fool ourselves and others.”
Are most Christians really all that different from the general population? Send me an E-mail and let us know your thoughts
Marlin
