Cheating –behaving in a dishonest way in order to get an advantage in economic, work or social relationships- seems to be a frequent practice in many countries.
Some people think that cheating is on the rise in societies where it used to be rare. In the book The Cheating Culture (2004), David Callahan refers to an “epidemic of cheating” in the US. He defines this kind of behavior as “breaking the rules to get ahead academically, professionally, or financially.”
The author says that people “are not only cheating more in many areas but are also feeling less guilty about it. When ‘everybody does it,’ or imagines that everybody does it, a cheating culture has emerged.” Cheating by students and athletes, corporate scandals, tax evasion, plagiarism by journalists or scientists, are some examples.
In some Latin American countries, people perceive cheating as a widespread, cultural problem, and give it specific names. In Argentina, since late nineteenth century, it is called “viveza criolla” or “native trickiness”. In Colombia, they say “malicia indígena” or “indigenous maliciousness”.
Do you think that cheating is something common in your country? Can you give some examples? What are the effects of this kind of behavior?
It's more prevalent but in the form of copying and pasting work from the online sources, more in the form of plagiarism. I use the Turnitin software to deal with the problem and send the results to students for them to address the infractions before the final submission. If the final submission still has evidence of plagiarism then the penalty is applied according to policy.
Many thanks,
Debra
Historically the level always used to be rather high - esp. outside close (microgroup) milieus
Cheating comes in many shapes and forms. Everybody cheats one way or another. The most frequent example is the popular phrase "I love you". And that phrase in translational and transhistorical.
Best regards, Lilliana
cheating in live, love, work, science, and transactions, i think that happen because of the crisis of morality and piousness.
Dear all,
Yes, yes, in Colombia cheating is common, but it is also common not cheating. Perhaps in my country the society is fragmented and people are very radicalized.
I am a university professor. In my class, there are always cheaters, but they are the minority. Most is straight, correct, ethical. The same happens in Colombian society. There will always be cheats and corrupt, but they are the minority.
Unfortunately, cheaters are the ruling class.
Jose,
Cheating is still rampant in the U.S., though people will tell you that it is less than in the 19th and early 20th century. I think cheating and fraud probably waxes and wanes with the economy, and we certainly know that both occur after natural disasters.
Louisiana, my state, is one of the locations that has seen a lot of cheating and fraud by by government officials and employees. Some try to attribute this to our Napoleonic tradition, though I think that is a lame excuse. We actually have several recent cases where employees that kept the financial records and made bank deposits for sheriff's departments or police departments were caught stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the law enforcement agency. In one case a clerk with our Louisiana State Police embezzled money from them. That is about as dumb as you can get.
Long ago I used to travel quite a bit in Mexico and they used to joke that if the officials and police did not take bribes that they would have to start paying them more.
But seriously, it seems that some high profile cases of fraud or cheating is ignored. One case is Stephan E. Ambrose, famed historian, author, and generous philanthropist. In 2002, shortly before his death, at least seven of his books were found to have extensive plagiarism. These included improperly cited phrases to entire pages. He defended this by saying that he was not writing a PhD. dissertation and he had cited the other authors, just not where you could tell what was his writing and what was theirs. The result of this unrepentant scandal? After his death Senator Mary Landrieu passed a resolution in the U.S. Senate lauding his excellence in writing about American history, the University of Wisconsin endowed a chair, the University of New Orleans created a special Ambrose Professor of History position, Rutgers University bestows upon someone a Stephan E. Ambrose Oral History award each year, the State of Mississippi designated Hwy 43 as the Stephan E. Ambrose Memorial Parkway, and the statue of Lewis and Clark in Clarksville, Indiana was dedicated to Ambrose's memory.
Note: While I live less than 40 miles from where Ambrose called home and am very familiar with his story and scandal, I did consult Wikipedia for some of the above. :~)
In my country of Japan, the most cheating people are politicians of the ruling parties, leading to the general people's political distrust.
Dear James, it was a glory to read your Ambrosian story. It was a relief to find out that universities not only cheat, but also they will monumentally honor a cheat. I laughed so hard I shed tears, ok... just one or two.
Abrazo grande, Lilliana
I guess the number of people cheating is just the same as always. There are some periods that there is a real increase in that number, but I believe that our society has better means to discover who is cheating than before and we all have the feeling that there are more people cheating out there.
Lawrence: Una pregunta interesante, me parece que esto tiene que ver con la calidad de la educación que hacemos hoy con los niños, es decir, una cosa es dar información a los niños y jovenes otra cosa es dar educación integral a las poblaciones entendiendo como educación integral como aprender a pensar, aprender a actura, a convivir con los demás, aprender a desarrollar el corazon, la moral la educación del alma y no solo educar en información.
Arturo Rivera A.
As the stakes of success rise, the reasoning goes on mill, to satisfy the temptations to cheat.
While there may be more ways to catch the cheater in today's world, someone not too many months ago in U.S. news said that today there are more ways to cheat, to scam, and to embezzle than any other time in our history. It seems that even with the knowledge (assuming they are that smart) that they will eventually get caught, some people still try to grasp that unearned coin.
ME ATREVO ONU Preguntar SI HEMOS Realizado Alguna investigacion de los Costos del engaño? si reconocemos Que Hay engaño Pero Cuánto cuesta al PIB de País de la ONU? HEMOS Registrado Los Costos de los engaños? Una sociedad para atrasar Una? Podemos Decir Que pecado la Humanidad se ha construído con un engaño?
eamos LO IMPORTANTE Que TENEMOS Una filosofía de la vida y es la honradez y Los Docentes TENEMOS El Deber de estafadores Enseñar the example, Hasta En El Mundo de la investigacion se han de Elaborado Mucho engaño Pero Que No seamos Nosotros.
Saludos. Arturo Rivera
Arturo,
The recognized or estimated cost of cheaters and scammers is available for many countries by querying the subject online. According to the Insurance Journal, as of November 2014 there had been over 30,000 complaints of fraud ranging from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars just from Hurricane Katrina alone! Scams, cheating, and fraud cost all of us.
Cheating is losing its stigma in some walks of life; or people laugh at it like a joke. Take as an example in a democracy the number of votes that two opposing candidates get are balanced, as opinion are balance, while in some country one candidate come out of the ballot box with 98% of votes. Cheating in these countries is an instrument of government and somehow they have convince themselves this for the “good of people”, hence its practice is allowed. I am amazed such people consider cheating by themselves is Ok but despicable if others do.
In some countries if you not practicing it, then it is your loss and some society seems to be indifferent, or actually incapable of eliminating it, hence resigned. In fact surrendered
It is everywhere the same problem..it is increasing in every aspects like from fundamental requirements to complex one..
as life is more individualized including relationship, so whether it is considered as 'cheating' or not is depend on the consent between couple.
Dear Colleagues,
Good Day,
I am so sorry to say that Iraq is either number one or number two in "Cheating, Fraud, Corruption, Stealing public properties, Bribery, etc etc..". This is due to the New Democracy that brought after 2003!!!
Please, see the links...
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-10-years-on-how-baghdad-became-a-city-of-corruption-8520038.html
http://www.salon.com/2016/03/30/worlds_biggest_bribe_scandal_report_on_oil_corruption_exposes_how_corporations_help_destabilize_middle_east/
http://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/middle-east-north-africa/iraq/snapshot.aspx
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/how-bribery-became-a-way-of-life-in-iraq-1722466.html
Dear Colleagues,
Good Day,
"Heartbreak is good fuel for country songs. And cheating."
----- Miranda Lambert
Hazim has described the actual situation in many places. It would seem that many people have lost their conscience, and a sense of shame. It seems to be happening at many levels in society, not just among the poor in order to get necessary food, but more so among the rich and powerful. Some people who prefer to be bound by the laws of conscience are considered foolish. But people do not know the JOYS OF A CLEAR CONSCIENCE, THAT ALLOWS US TO SLEEP WELL AND TO FACE DIFFICULTIES AND ADVERSITIES WITH GRACE. The thing is can we succeed in getting this old fashioned message out to a modern generation(?), that is so advanced in technology, but backward in ETHICS.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-kleptocracy.htm#didyouknowout
Hi Miranda,
In some countries you can get away with murder, provided you have enough money and ind influence. Cheating is nothing compared with murder. The trouble is their society is indifferent.
Dear Hazim,
I have read your attachments. and it is sad to learn that so much sacrifice followed by the return of swindlers. Whatever upheaval you put a system through, they are always end up on the top.
Before a regime gives way to a new regime, there are a lot of swindlers, thieves, cheats etc are in peaceful coexistent (borrowing a phrase from Khrushchev) with police. But as soon as the old regime is gone, these people are nowhere to be seen. I tell you where they go, they have joined the new regime and now are the leaders of the people's army. The new regime has no means of weeding out such "reformed" people and they take in whoever who pays the lip service. The seed of bad apple is swan.
In reality the old habit doesn't go away. These people are there to cheat their way to fortune. Sooner or later everybody in the new system are at it- no body likes to be left behind. The decent people now looking forward for the replacement for this regime and the viscous circle goes on.
The soviet collapse contributed by many factor, but opportunist who were there for a ride had the biggest share. The replacement is not better than the old one for the most of cases. This can be said for all spectrum of ideology without exception.
Cheating is with us and we need to be alert and recognize it.
Cheating is everyday practice in my country. I have treated some forms of cheating under my threads. Many examples from my country were analysed.
https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_do_you_think_about_plagiarism_especially_when_it_is_related_to_high_Government_officials?_tpcectx=qa_overview_asked&_trid=I1NRG0ZAeEtaQ0VryHsnJxem_
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Corruption_remains_one_of_the_biggest_challenges_for_all_societies_Do_you_have_examples_of_corruption_in_your_society?_tpcectx=qa_overview_asked&_trid=CtcVZfr8A7cYE0GQhskEVR43_
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_it_possible_to_publish_a_noteworthy_paper_in_a_Journal_Why_should_one_do_it?_tpcectx=qa_overview_asked&_trid=NxiS8xupbB50UsZDB4t1HY8Q_
What kind of cheating, you mean? Rising! But I don't have any statistics from my country, but if you mean cheating in a romantic relationship then I guess it is becoming more common and increasing internationally! Why? Nowadays, with the advent of the Internet, web, e-mail, chat rooms, Telegram, ... the cheating has been widespread. These tools have good merits but are making it easier for people to engage in infidelity and cheating, unfortunately.
In my country, it seems that lying or cheating became a curse in some circumstances of the world of politics. Politics at governmental levels, of the institutions, and politics of the civil society with its groups of interests. Bad politicians believe that the most important are the goals, so they do not mind of using all means, including lies, for reaching their purposes. According to Francisco Sá Carneiro a founder of an important democratic politic party in my Country in seventies and former prime minister that died in an airplane crash that was not yet fully explained: “Politics without ethics is a shame.”
In my opinion, in a general context, poverty of spirit, lack of civic education, and lack of true democratic culture is on the base of all societal diseases that still persists all over the world. The change necessary is of responsibility of everybody.
Estoy de acuerdo con las respuestas de Arturo Rivera.
In our country the cheating is increasing as a common crime action, so, day after day is increasing it, which have very negative effects, theft, robbery, lose the time, take the money, no respect for obligations of family e go until to be negative person everywhere ... , ... so step by step become a liar and deceiver highest for everything, especially to the opposite sex, mainly there are young people and men ... In my opinion, poverty is the main cause of rising crime especially cheating in today's society ...
Cheating, fraud, corruption ... Most of the cases in Serbia and Western Balkan Countries are under observation of agencies KRIK, CINS, OCCRP.
https://www.krik.rs/en/
https://www.cins.rs/english
https://www.occrp.org/en
Farce of the fake Oxford degree. It would make a good title for a comedy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7708431.stm
Hazim,
Unlike the policies of my government, I personally do not believe that democracy is right for everybody. All should be free to chose the government that works best for them.
Many of the U.S. contractors and subcontractors in Iraq have been accused or found guilty of cheating, theft, and bribery . My apologies.
Clearly, cheating cannot be tolerated. But beyond the immediate offence, India needs to tackle the root causes of such large-scale cheating, which happens in various parts of the country. A prominent cause is the system of rote learning common in Indian schools.
The photograph went viral around the world. In India, there were jokes about Spiderman and how “scaling great heights” means something else in Bihar.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/in-india-exam-cheating-is-just-a-symptom/article23669759/
cheating in india .... it is very common and most of the Indian students feeling it as their right.... you can find it in every exam.... we are running about the certificates and not the education.... its effects:
Corruption
Many deserved candidates are sitting at home and the undeserved are working
values erosion
degradation in (quality) education
depression, academic stress among hard workers (teachers and students)
system failure
degradation of mentality (parents, students,teachers, society)
Sirous,
The claims of possessing a degree has been a problem in the academic world, as well as political and corporate world. In fact, I remember a story not too many months back about some Ivy League university in the U.S. that did not check a professor's credentials, but took his word of having a degree. He taught for several years before someone found out the truth.
This reminds me of a story that just broke only days ago about a fake university discovered in New Jersey that was created in order to get government student visas and work visas for thousands of foreigners.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/05/pf/college/visa-scam-fake-university/index.html
You are right.
Quite common all over the world in all fields where not!!! According to law 'deliberate deception'. Variety of effects depends on the way of cheating. Probably cannot generalize.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheating
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraud
https://www.transparency.org/cpi2014
In Ireland we learned to our detriment the effects of cheating or buying political favour to get a decission you want. Much talk was made of the Celtic tiger and the building boom this was very much a false economy leading to the bust. Backhanders and brown envelopes banks lending left right and centre to everyone whether they could afford repayments or not. Them those in default went to money lenders to pay back the banks. The boom in construction caused the economy to overheat and instead of taking measures to create and economic cool down government continued to let the economic temperature rise and left Ireland in almost economic ruin. We had an EU bail out austerity and all because of a few unscrupulous people. We now have banks unwilling to lend people with no homes due to large unrepayable loans living on the streets with extended family or in hotel rooms with no where to go and now they are saying we need social housing fine if it's not built willynilly but where there is a need and a demand instead of in rediculous place leaving us with unfinished houses and estates that are death traps.
Dear José,
What have you meant cheating in science, in politics, in business, in marriage or in everyday life? Or cheating in RG threads to get more scores and with it pseudo-respect?
Cheating has become a normal course of life , similar to corruption , regardless of geographical or cultural boundary , especially few teenagers feel , its a short cut ot big success and easy to earn money , but they never know , how much damaging , it is to them and to the society , such misconcepts are spreading by leaps and bounds .
Dear Colleagues,
Good Day,
Attached are some articles about "latest scandal of fraud in iraq", please, see them...
https://leaksource.info/2013/04/08/contractors-reap-138-billion-from-iraq-war-cheneys-halliburton-1-with-39-5-billion/
http://www.alternet.org/story/140558/report%3A_billions_of_dollars_lost_to_contractor_fraud,_waste_and_abuse
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/sep/20/iraq.michaelhoward
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2012/07/billions-for-iraq-reconstruction-lost-to-fraud/
Cheating can effect in many ways i.e. by increasing impact of some people, relatively decreasing impact of others who don't cheat, and, thus, promoting cheating as a mean of success.
Good example of Andras's contribution on "cheating in RG threads to get more scores and with it pseudo-respect" is the following thread where many examples were given!
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_plagiarism_a_key_to_receive_upvotes_in_RG_answers
Cheating is a reflection of who you are and who you want to be. Cheating is a tacit admission of incompetence, laziness, selfishness, arrogance, and disrespect. Cheating is very anti-social and people especially successful ones don’t care to associate with cheaters. Your coworkers won’t appreciate the lack of respect that cheating reflects. Our nation will not be globally competitive if we raise a generation of under educated cheaters. Parents and teachers should emphasize the importance of integrity
INTEGRITY IN POLITICS IS HARD TO FIND IN ALL LATITUDES AND LONGITUDES CHEATING PREVAILS .
I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating.
--- Sophocles
Hi
Unfortunately cheating in its different forms and level occurs. Even at Faculty levels who cheat research for the purpose of promotions. One of the cheating forms that some faculty members make a deal to work on 4 research papers, each one of them will be first in the one paper and he/she will add the rest of the authors to this paper without their contributions. The rest of them will do the same to end up with 4 papers in unethical way. I wish if you have any idea on how to stop such act.
Dear Jose,
This is a very interesting question. In my opinion, cheating is not only become an endemic, but it is merge into the society culture. If you observe in the society, cheaters are found everywhere. Parents cheat on their child that there is SANTA CLAUS who will place present during Christmas Day; Lovers cheats with each others by undergo dense plastic surgery or heavy make-up; even sometimes Healthcare workers lied to terminal ill patients that they will recovered soon. So, I believe that cheating common in this society.
Hope this helpful
Cheating is all pervasive, in every field of life, across countries in the world.
Parents and friends in the town of Mahnat, Bihar, shinned up four storeys of the crumbling Vidya Niketa School to pass notes to students who were inside taking exams.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/in-india-reach-for-the-top-taken-to-new-heights-as-parents-literally-scale-walls-to-help-students-cheat-on-exams
Guys, catch this gem: In January a new Major was elected in Bogotá, the capital of my country. He was supposed to be the person that knows most all over the world about urbanism (sic!). He's published a couple of books. In sum, he claimed from long time ago that he earned a Ph.D. A journalistic research proved adamantly that he was lying. The Mayor of Bogotá is supposed to be the second most important public charge after the president.
Now, back to José's question: Do they cheat in your country? What about that!
It is sad that we all recognize cheating is not uncommon by politicians, authors, public servants, corporations, corporate heads, etc. If the evidence is so apparent, then what does that tell us about those meant to see that these things do not occur?
Plagiarism is ubiquitus throughout the academic world, and it is practiced by both students and professors. When I see it, I speak out. The usual reaction from colleagues --university professors-- is either to discreetly look the other way and pretend nothing is happening, or to accuse me of disrupting the harmonious relations of the community. I have had the same experience, with the same reactions, on ResearchGate discussions. If the academic community is not seen by the rest of society as being generally honest, we will be in danger of losing whatever credibility and relevance we continue to enjoy. The solution, in my opinion, is not to cover up academic cheating by denying its exisence, but to minimize it by insisting on high ethical standards by both students and professors.
David,
I feel the same. It is simple enough to either do a direct quote or rephrase somebody's text and then provide citation to where the quote or thought/information came from. It is also the professional thing to do. I had a situation early this year where I needed to include artifact typology descriptions in a report. The descriptions were written completely by me, but when I worked for another company 15 years ago. I ended up rephrasing or rewriting 14 pages of my own writing just so that nobody could accuse me of plagiarism.
James: I can relate to your experience. Autoplagiarism can be avoided by citing previous sources. Sometimes one chooses to rework an existing text, so the first footnote can say something like "This article is a revised and expanded version of the paper originally presented in X congress, or published in N proceedings volume." But sometimes copyright issues make it necessary to reword the same or similar ideas, or data, when one has signed away the rights to a previous text. I have found myself in that situation a couple of times. Of course, this sort of ethical issue pales beside the dishonest --and illegal-- practice of copying fragments of another authors' text into one's work.
Dear friends, no offence about this: in general administrators are not intelligent, that's why they cheat. This is not a judgment of mine, just a description (i mean their intelligence). Truly...
Dear Colleagues,
Good Day,
"Lying, stealing, and cheating are commonplace."
----- Joseph B. Wirthlin
Dear colleagues,
I definitely agree with Prof. Subhash C. Kundu that "Cheating is all pervasive, in every field of life, across countries in the world.". That's right. Cheating is everywhere, anytime.
In Vietnam, cheating is called "lừa dối" or "gian lận". There is "cheating culture" in Vietnam too. Cheating is so popular that most of people consider "small cheating" is "not cheating" and "big cheating" is just a "small cheating".
Dear All,
I am afraid we live in world wholly permeated with cheating. The most touched areas are politics, business and practically each of their contacts and networks. Certainly, cheating is present in science and the general experience is: corruption begins at the top. Scientists in powerful position and melted with politics, political parties or national/local interest circles are able to destroy the future of a country, the real principle of science and to build a culture of Buggin’s turn.
The study by Filipe Almeida, published this year in Portugal, entitled "The Ethics of Students and tolerance of teachers and institutions in relation to Academic Fraud in Higher Education", allows the following conclusions:
44% of students copied an exam and 52% copied by a colleague;
fraud goes well among students;
copy is a response to pressure that certain students feel;
fraud is often on engineering students, after the economy and management, and then the "arts" students;
there are those who copy the partner, and those who copy at your own risk;
buy a done work, make-up work "to help", or use the same work in various courses is common.
On the other hand, this study also recorded the permittivity of teachers, that is justified by the fact that they are mainly "... evaluated for their quality as researchers, and not so much for its educational activity...".
best regards,
Carla.
I recently posted this on another thread, but I think it bears repeating here. If honesty is included among the defining characteristics of science, as some authors have done, then all science is honest. Any publication that is not honest is excluded from the category of science and becomes pseudoscience. Please see, for example, the section on "Honesty" in James Lett's article "A field guide to critical thinking":
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/field_guide_to_critical_thinking
I am attaching a translation I made for my students, for my Castilian-speaking colleagues following this thread.
Hola, José,
Somos compatriotas, así que tendrás en claro el la dimensión del problema, Su práctica está tan extendida que en nuestra cátedra decidimos hace unos años volver a evaluar a los estudiantes con el tradicional método de parciales presenciales. Se acabaron los domiciliarios.
Tengo entendido que en la UNICAMP una antropóloga hizo su tesis doctoral sobre este tema. Lamentablemente no tengo más datos, me enteré en una de esas charlas entre colegas que se dan en los congresos.
Voy a recordar esta pregunta y si tengo más datos te los enviaré.
Saludos,
Alejandra Vega
Dear Prof. NGUYEN:
I'm curious, because I study this issue. What would "lừa dối" or "gian lận". mean in English?
Estimada Alejandra:
Es un gusto para mí que hayas intervenido en la discusión. Es muy interesante lo que decís acerca de tu cátedra. Y sería importante tener más datos sobre esa otra investigación. .
Como podés ver, la "viveza criolla" no es tan "criolla": está muy extendida en el mundo.
David Charles,
I agree in a way, but the difference is often not black and white, but grey. There have been some discoveries in the past that were lauded as advancing science, but only after several years did someone else try to replicated the findings and get different results. In fact, we have "basic science" that has been part of our lives for 50 years that has been proven wrong. Were the first results gained by cheating or lying about the results? Sloppy work? How many findings out there are accepted as fact that might have been the result of falsifying data or poor research? Is it still "honest science" if we don't know its bad?
The other problem is scientific evidence versus public opinion. There are many people out there that actively practice pseudoscience. Some are self-delusional individuals who think that their investigations or experiments are scientifically sound. Others are con artists trying to hoodwink people into believing something that is not.
I was reading about one individual who is doing "archaeology" on an ancient civilization that scientist and archaeologist say does not exist. His evidence is nothing more than random geologic formations. However - however - he has convinced his government that it is real and has acquired government funding to continue his work. He has the support of the local people, who see this as a way to bring much needed tourism dollars into their poor region. He has the support of pseudoscience organizations who claim that there is a conspiracy of world governments to keep the truth from the public. Like the Bimini Road, which some claim is a drowned ancient roadway in the Bahamas, these pseudoscience discoveries are extremely difficult to disclaim because the pronunciators of these claims often cast legitimate scientists as being part of the conspiracy and the public is quick to believe anything that goes bump in the night.
My point is that we, as scientists, are directly affected by those who promote pseudoscience. We can talk about critical thinking and scientific standards all that we want. We can denounce bad science or ignore it as not worthy of time nor comment, but that does not mitigate the fact that pseudoscience and public opinion often affect research and grant moneys.
James:
"Scientific" does not necessarily imply "true." Science gives us falsifiable hypotheses that haven't (yet) been refuted. That is why it has given us such amazing results; it has an inherent mechanism for correcting itself. Nothing is "proven;" that was the old positivist paradigm that still holds sway in popular culture and mass media.
Pseudoscience is evidently more abundant and influential, among human populations in general, than science. This is why it is vital to teach the upcoming generations to distinguish between the two. I have found that the most practical and effective method, for me at least, is to provide students with two simple, brief formulations that express the essence of the scientific perspective. The one I posted this morning is by James Lett, an anthropologist. The other is cosmologist Carl Sagan's "baloney detection kit," from his book The demon-haunted world, which says essentially the same thing as Lett's article. This shows that there is indeed a common foundation to science, across the "natural" and "social" division(which I see as a false dichotomy, or at least an artificial categorization). Students in my research methods class construct toolkits on file cards with Lett's rules and Sagan's rules, recommendations, and fallacies, then apply these tools to texts they suspect may be pretending to be scientific, but don't live up to the standards of science. This technique has given me good results, increasing my students' capacity for critical analysis. This is a minimal introduction to the scientific perspective; students are encouraged to read more widely and deeply, enhancing their toolkits with material from authors like Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, Mario Bunge, and others.
It's like vaccinating populations against disease. If we, as educators, can attain some sort of critical mass of critical thinkers in the world, maybe we can improve human society in important ways (making democracy more effective, for example, and curbing mindless, self-destructive consumerism). I am well aware that this will take major changes in the way our educational systems operate. Meanwhile we can throw pebbles into the global pond and create some ripples.
I am attaching a fragment of Sagan's text and a Castilian translation.
I would also like to share this web site, RationalWiki, which is dedicated to refuting pseudoscientific claims in a humorous and irreverant way. I suppose that not everybody would apppreciate the mordantly satirical tone, but it makes me laugh and think at the same time, so I enjoy it immensely.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page
Well, one more reason, a very basic one, why people -especially politicians cheat-, is just because the opportunity to do so. They consider all the others as dumb, believing that they will never be watched in their cheating.
David Charles,
We agree. Pardon if it seemed to me that you originally were saying that the scientific community should ignore those that do pseudoscience. Concise, plain-speak, scientific refutation is better than ignoring the problem. I just think there needs to be more stress on informing the public of charlatans and trying to gain the trust and support of the general public.
Dear Colleagues,
Good Day,
"Iraqi government shut down Internet to… prevent exam cheating?
A year after Iraqi officials ordered the shutdown of Internet access in nearly a quarter of the countryto limit the ability of ISIS to communicate, the government ordered a complete shutdown of Internet service in the country for three hours on Saturday, June 27. A shorter interruption followed today. At least one of these outages was apparently intended to block a different sort of message traffic: the sharing of answers for national exams for entry into junior high school.
The outage began at 5:00am in Iraq and lasted until 8:00am, based on data from Dyn Research. According to the Egypt-based Arabic news service El Hadas, the outage corresponded to "the start of the sixth ministerial preparatory exams"—the national tests for entry into junior high school. In Iraq, education is only required for all students up to the sixth-grade level; those who fail to score well enough on exams at the end of the sixth year generally don't continue their education.
With that kind of high-pressure testing, the motivation for cheating is high as well—so high that the government decided to shut down Internet access to prevent parents or others from remotely assisting students during the exams. It's not clear whether the brief outage today (which lasted about an hour, starting at 5:00am again) was also connected to testing."
Please, see the link ....
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/06/iraqi-government-shut-down-internet-to-prevent-exam-cheating/
Thank you, Hazim. That piece of news is very interesting indeed. The web is changing the way people think, behave, and interact; we are in the process of learning how to assimilate this technology into our individual and collective lives.
Hi, José. Though I am a Spanish speaker, I will answer in English since I see there is a worldwide audience here.
As a highschool teacher, I suspice many of my pupils cheat. I am a Philologist and I could prove it scientifically, but the usual behaviour of parents and pupils and even colleagues is - if you don't catch the cheater hands on, you can do nothing. The consecuence of being catch (in fraganti) uses to be failing THAT exam, but it does not force the student to fail further exams nor carries a suspension from school -as in american films like "It" or "Mystic River". (Who cheated you, Stephen King?)
People don't see cheating as wrong; teens speak aloud about it in the bus and I even saw people talking about cheating with their ohones when they were still leaving the doors of the exam center.--and there were teachers around.
Parents even gelp their siblings cheat, I met a person who did it.
Chesting in marriage is little spoken about, but a friend of mine, a salesman, used to feel wrong when their company won a contract -and had to carry the contractor to a brothel in order to "thank" his services. He, a married man like most of his coworkers, always refused, but it was seen as unfair by the rest of males.
About other spheres of cheating, I studied the economical one on anthropological economy, but focused on China and USSR. Nothing about Cleptocracia, the Spanish version of mexican Mordida or italian Tangentopoli. Spanish small companies use to cheat on taxes. And the big ones don't need to do it, since they operate from tax havens.
Last but not least, there is also a common practice on cheating when driving, obeying rules when police or cameras can record you, and using the lights to warn people about speed controls or warning lorries about weight controls using the radio is seen as the right etiquette, while being prosecuted by law.
Want to know a big nice gossip - which is absolutely true, nonetheless? Well, the greatest cheaters and bankrupted people in my country have either studied at the best Colombian universities or also at the best universities in the U.S.A. Does this mean something?
Buenos días, José Eduardo Jorge,
Concuerdo completamente. "...la "viveza criolla" no es tan "criolla": está muy extendida en el mundo...." Es decepcionante, hasta las costumbres argentinas son una copia!!!
Bromas aparte, he estado preguntando por la tesis que te mencioné. Dame un tiempo, creo que puedo rastrearla.
Saludos,
Alejandra
Concerning cheating in my country, Ghana, I'll not mince words. I have to hit the nail right on the head. In doing this, I am by no means denting the image of my country, but just telling you the situation here.
Cheating is prevalent in Ghana. It can be found in almost every sector. You name them. Just about every sector that comes to mind is an avenue for cheating in this country. The police who are supposed to even protect us are no different. Carry out an investigation into their offices and you'll hear some of the worst forms of information. The educational sector is bedridden with cheating malfeasances. I am not talking about corruption here even though the two are linked. I can go on and on and on but I'll conclude by saying that if we don't curb this canker as a country, levels of cheating will escalate to uncontrollable levels.
In my country cheating is prohibited by law
Two other laws - prohibit selling cigarettes in the night time and fishing on June the 2nd.
The whole world functions because of this behaviour; a derivative of one's ego.....that is the reason all whistle blowers end up losing their lives..... We need to learn from animals, they demonstrate healthy cheating just to satisfy their basic needs, but not to destroy their own kind.
The state cheats on citizen and the citizen cheat on the state but the state has much more opportunities.
Dear José,
This is an open discussion thus I allow myself to ask on the language environment of your answer to Alejandra: “As I can see, the "native cunning" is not as "cunning": it is very widespread in the world.”
I am sorry I did not want to affront the private sphere of others.
I wish one politically active person, officer, administrator, public servant, police personal should answer this question honestly so that even I can know the level of cheating in our country.
Dear Colleagues,
Good Day,
Even though personally, I don't believe on this proverb!!!
Cheating is more honorable than stealing.
(German Proverb)
Is this true German Proverb?
In most countries public servants are underpaid so it is common practice to seek for bonuses for some extra money to get the work done . Is that cheating or corruption?
Election cheating is so common in my country. I am sure it will take place again on April 24th. It happens at all level of elections.
Number of voter fraud cases that are prosecuted are only a sliver of the fraud taking place because there is no system in place to detect fraud.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/voter-fraud-real-rare/story?id=17213376
In Panama Papers, Finding the Good News in Widespread Tax Cheating
Who does not cheats? Prominent figures (presidents, leaders, bosses, stars, football players, ...) worldwide have used offshore companies to hide billions of dollars. It looks only the poor people look and suffer.
According to Panama Papers it's easy for tax cheats to create companies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/06/upshot/finding-the-good-news-in-widespread-tax-cheating.html?_r=0
Cheating is in human's nature and nothing changed from the time of Abraham till now. But of course the level of political cheating is extremely high.
US corporate tax cheats hiding $1.4 trillion in profits in offshore accounts
A report issued Thursday by the British charity Oxfam found that the 50 largest US corporations are hiding $1.4 trillion in profits in overseas accounts to avoid US income taxes, much of it in tax havens like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands.
The biggest tax dodger is technology giant Apple, with $181 billion held offshore. General Electric had the second-largest stash, at $119 billion, enough to repay four times over the $28 billion GE received in federal guarantees during the 2008 Wall Street crash. Microsoft had $108 billion in overseas accounts, with companies like Exxon Mobil, Pfizer, IBM, Cisco Systems, Google, Merck, and Johnson & Johnson rounding out the top ten.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/15/oxfa-a15.html