A couple of weeks ago I read Dan Ariely’s The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone – Especially Ourselves. The book is loaded with research and stories that illustrate the ways humans consistently rationalize dishonest activity. And consistency was a key word – I was fascinating at how the research consistently showed people being dishonest to a similar threshold.
The main takeaway from the book is that people lie or engage in dishonest behavior up to the point where they can still rationalize themselves as being a good person. So it suggests that there is some kind of unwritten cheater code that we humans like to live by – where we can seek to gain an advantage for ourselves and also fully believe that we are good people.
What was most interesting to me was that the research indicated that religion and the reminder of a greater power and spiritual moral code had a significant influence on dishonesty in a positive sense. People simple were more honest and demonstrated more integrity when they had recently been reminded of this higher power and moral code.
However – the author dismisses this arena from the book because of the impracticality of mobilizing humanity to embrace a common religious solution. He abruptly dismisses the discussion about the depths to which religion might be the best solution and instead seeks a more pragmatic or secular solution that would not be controversial. On one hand, I understand that much of the research focuses on specific behavior. But it is disappointing that the religious sphere had such a powerful impact in the research, but did not get explored in depth.
There’s a lot of practical application here as well as areas worth reflecting on- as it relates to leadership development, culture shaping, and ministry activities like discipleship and spiritual formation. The question is how we can foster integrity in communities and in leaders when research shows that dishonesty is rampant, subtle, and mostly hidden by rationalization.
One particular example stood out to me as a professor. We have various things that often require students signing an honor code or pledge of honor that they did something they said they did. Research shows that it’s almost useless to have people sign at the end of the document verifying that everything prior was true.
Research shows the rationalization or dishonesty has already happened and been justified. But if you have people read and sign a pledge of honesty of some sort before they fill out a document or take a test, then the results are outstanding that dishonesty will be much more minimal. I am changing all such documents I use for my classes to account for some of these learnings. I can help them be honest through how I design various documents and through what and when I remind them of related to a higher standard or authority. You can obviously use this information in heavy handed ways, but if used appropriately it can just make honesty easier for everyone. That was really interesting to think about.
There were other great anecdotes including one about how just being under a “set of eyes” has on cheating or dishonesty behavior. Even a symbol of “eyes” looking on someone in situations where temptation is high resulted in more honest behavior.
So there’s a lot of fascinating research that gives a lot of windows into people’s self-understanding and inner workings. It’s fully worth reading this because you’ll learn things that will help you in whatever walk of life you are in.
I want to grow in my awareness of how I rationalize and justify dishonest behavior and I want to help others do the same. This book provides some practical helps for regulating behavior, but does not offer any ultimate solutions because it avoids the spiritual realm. What it does do – is illustrate how people think and behave and how deep down there is an almost pathological drive to preserve a sense of being “good” all the while looking for every self-serving advantage we can get away with.
This points us to the need for the gospel. We need it to be reminded of a better and holy way. We need it because we are deeply fallen and yet we desire to be good though we can’t seem to rid ourselves of the duplicity and the falseness. Sometimes it helps to look in a mirror as to how we tend to deceive ourselves and even though there weren’t great answers, this book provided me with the questions I want to be asking of myself and others.
