WHY NOT CHEAT?

 It often pays off to cheat, so why not do it? Essentially, there are two kinds of reasons. The first involves looking out for number one. The other involves doing the right thing. Let’s examine both.

Looking Out for Number One
One reason not to cheat is the potential costs too often outweigh the likely benefits. This is not a moral argument. The point here isn’t that cheating is wrong, though it is for reasons we will soon examine. It’s that cheating isn’t wise. It lacks serious forethought and sufficient self-regard.

Sometimes students cheat, because they don’t fully realize the seriousness of getting caught. Yet few things enrage genuine educators more than cheating. If they take their profession seriously, they will take weighty measures against students guilty of it. These include:

• Double weighted zeros on the test or assignment
• An informative phone call to parents
• Course failure
• A letter of reprimand in the student’s permanent record
• Compulsory community service
• Expulsion from a program
• Expulsion from school

Another prudential reason for not cheating is that it stifles the development of the cheater’s own potential. Cheaters cheat themselves out of their own possibilities. Oscar Lavant once observed: " It's not what you are, it's what you don't become." That's dead right, but only as far as it goes. Cheating also involves what you are. Or, put another way, it defines what you really are. As Emerson observed; "As a man chooses, so is he." 

Another prudential reason not to cheat is that in subjects learned sequentially cheating only postpones inevitable failure. Let’s say someone cheats his way through an introductory math or foreign language course. His or her lack of actual ability typically catches up with them in the very next course. The same applies to many other subjects. In other words, cheating often only postpones the inevitable. The odds that cheaters can keep cheating their way through school get slimmer and slimmer as the cheater "advances." 

We see, then, that there are solid practical reasons not to cheat.

Ethical Reasons
The Ten Commandments offer one well-known ethical argument against cheating. “Thou shalt not steal.” Since a cheater gets a grade they didn't earn, cheating is stealing. Additionally, deciding whether or not to cheat measures a person's character. Especially if there is a good chance of not getting caught. So cheaters should remember, their character is the very essence of their being.

Cheating also produces unjust consequences. Justice requires that each person gets what he or she deserves. Deciding what people deserve isn’t easy. That's not the case with cheaters. The cheater didn’t actually do the work, their honest classmates did. Therefore, the cheater does not deserve the same grade. Also cheaters cheat every honest member of the class — including their friends. (It's particularly disgusting to cheat one's friends.)

Here is still another consideration. Ethical persons only choose an action if it would be okay for everyone in similar circumstances to do the same. Apply that to cheating. Imagine everyone cheating everyone. That would be disastrous. So, using the above standard, cheating is not okay. Imagine a physician who cheated their way through medical school now faced with saving someone from a potentially deadly disease. How about an architect who cheated his or her way through learning how to build structures that won't collapse? Each of us repeatedly benefit from others who did not and do not cheat. We sometimes even depend upon that with our very lives. So it would definitely not be okay if everyone, even a lot of people, cheated. Right?

Cheating also involves using others to get what we want without regard for other people's rights. The rights of the teacher and the other test takers, for instance. People aren't things and should not be treated as if they were. Cheating requires doing just that to them. Therefore, it is wrong.

Finally, in deciding what is morally right we need to consider the total good and the total harm that will result from our action. With cheating the total harm typically outweighs the total good. Put another way, honest effort provides greater benefits to a greater number. 

That also reveals why cheating is usually morally wrong. I say "usually" because it certainly matters what you are cheating at. For instance, if you are an inmate in a concentration camp and cheating the SS will save your life. In other words, cheating is perfectly okay IF in doing so you only break evil or ridiculous rules.

Summary
We’ve seen there are two kinds of reasons not to cheat. The first involves looking out for number one in a well-reasoned way. The second involves the elemental difference between right and wrong. The combined force of both arguments suggests cheating is a bad idea. The trouble is, cheating can pay off. In fact it can pay off handsomely if you don't get caught. But the price can be high, including felony convictions in some cases, if you do get caught. Or if you happen to value honor and integrity. 

Psychological research reveals that when people have a chance to reflect on a moral issue, they are much more likely to behave in accord with their consciences. Give yourself that opportunity.

(This is an edited version of something I wrote in 2009.)