Part 3/3 with polls included in-slide. Briefly, this slideshow covers: —The Cheating Bug. (And is it contagious?) —How to avoid getting ethically ill. —Do we cheat more when we're together? —Remember your mortality. —Conflicts of interest. —Prioritizing values, and would you let innocent people die to avoid telling a lie? —The most important command. —Biblical themes.

1. How We Lie to Everyone—Especially
Ourselves.

2.  Adding/matrix task:
 People can usually solve 4. If able to cheat,
will claim solved 6.
 Cheating comes from everyone cheating a
little, not one person cheating a lot.
 If money involved, people will cheat a little
more if it's a little. Will cheat 0 if it's a lot.
 Told average person solves 8. (Fear of
standing out.) How many solved? Still just 6.
Not fear of standing out, but our own sense of

3.  SMORC-Israeli tests
 The Fudge Factor-6 pack vs 6 dollars
 Further Way from our Sins
 -Give me X tokens vs X
dollars...token had 200% more
cheating
 Understand how dishonesty
increases, can avoid it.

4.  Self-deception. (What you come to
believe; math test, etc...)
 Lie differences: self-interest vs not
hurting others.
 Creativity kills.
 Lying for justice! (86% of people stole
when annoyed.)

5.  The 10 Commandments at UCLA
 450, 1/2 10 command, 1/2 books as kid. 0
cheating with 10.
 Blinded by motivations...dentists.
Doctors.
 Worn down willpower. Write essay
without x or z, without a or n.
 Real vs fake.
 Sunglasses. Then matrix text. 30 vs 71%.

6. The cheating bug. (Does
it spread?)
How to avoid getting
ethically ill.
Do we cheat together?

7. Memento Mori.
Conflicts of Interest.
Prioritizing Values
The Most Important
Command

8. The Matrix test, again.
But now let’s throw in Bernie
Madoff.
He completes the test in an
impossibly short time. He then
shreds his test, takes all the
money, and leaves.

10. Instead of solving the average of
7 (for this test, out of 20), people
claimed to solve an average of
15!
1 Cor 15: 32 If the dead are not
raised, “Let us eat and drink, for
tomorrow we die.” 33 Do not be
deceived: “Bad company ruins

11.  Same test, but David only asks, “Doesn’t
this make it possible to cheat? What
happens if I cheat like crazy?” The
proctor answers lazily, “You can do
whatever you want,” and goes back to her
book.
 David then proceeds to not cheat.
 Now we can tell if the cheating was due
to David, or due to knowing that they

14.  Cheating actually went down to LOWER
than if David had cheated, and lower
even than the “shredder condition.”
 When we are made to look dishonesty in
the eye, out in the open, we tend to
become more honest. The importance of
asking hard questions, then, is important.
 Note: if the person who is the Madoff is
from a rival group, this also increases our
honesty.

16.  The Broken Windows Theory
 The Bible often talks about this.
 2 Tim 3 [16] All scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness: [17] That the
man of God may be perfect, thoroughly
furnished unto all good works.

17.  Joshua 7-9 and Achan’s theft.
 Immediately after the triumph at Jericho, the
Israelites fight against the city of Ai, but are
unable to take it. God tells Joshua that Israel
lost because of God's anger. One of the
Israelites has kept some of the "devoted
things" from Jericho for himself instead of
destroying them. Therefore, Israel herself has
become a "devoted thing," which will be
destroyed unless the sinner is punished and
the stolen objects destroyed (Joshua 7:12).

18.  Jennifer the CPA. (“I don’t like these
numbers. Please gather your team and get
me a revised version by next
Wednesday.”)
 GAAP
 1 rule is “the principle of sincerity,”
accountant’s report should reflect the
company’s financial status “in good
faith.”

19. What happens if more than 1
person makes the decision to
cheat?
Altruistic cheating. (Robin
Hood!)
The money basket for drinks at
the psychology department:

21. Collaborative but unknown.
(Color and number, find.)
Combine scores, don’t talk,
take to proctor.
What happens?

23. Collaborative and kinda
known.
Meet each other, you go first,
she goes second. Combine,
take to proctor together.
What happens to cheating?
Altruism supervision

25. Collaborative and well known.
Meet each other, chat, hang
out, take test together. What
happens to cheating?
Altruism supervision

28. Long-term
relationships.
Your doctor and
dentist.
Analyzed millions of

30. Few aggressive cheaters.
Many small-time cheaters.
◦Common in business.
Cheaters cause cheating to
spread.
Aggressive cheaters cause
other people to become
aggressive cheaters.

32. Which culture cheated
most?
The Israelis, the Americans,
the Chinese, the Italians, or
the British?
Who cheats more, bankers

34.  From confessing to Yom Kippur to Sabbath.
 Eccl 4: 9 Two are better than one because
they have a good return for their labor. 10 For
if either of them falls, the one will lift up his
companion. But woe to the one who falls
when there is not another to lift him up. 11
Furthermore, if two lie down together they
keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?
12 And if one can overpower him who is
alone, two can resist him. A cord of three
strands is not quickly torn apart.

35.  Do preferences drive our behaviors, or vice
versa?
 Do we do it because we like it, or do we like
it because we are doing it?
 Like building something.
 Involvement increases investment.
 In Sanhedrin 105b, a Jewish rabbinical text,
there is deep appreciation of the self-
signaling feedback loop: “A person should
always engage in Torah and its precepts even
if not with sincerity, because insincere
behavior leads to sincere behavior.”

36.  Conducting experiments are in the Bible.
 For example, in Judges 6, Gideon tries to answer the
question, “How can I know for sure that something’s true—
that I’m not just believing what I want to believe?”*
Gideon’s experiment was to test whether it was indeed God
who spoke to him and wanted him to lead a rebellion, or
whether it was just a voice in his head. On the first night
Gideon was contemplating this question, he asked God to
make the morning dew land only on a piece of wool fleece
and not on the ground around it. The next night, he wanted
to make sure that this dew-falling pattern of data was not
due to chance or particular weather conditions. So he set a
control condition, and asked God to do the exact opposite:
keep the fleece dry, but surround it with dewy ground.
When he saw both patterns of data confirmed, he was
satisfied that God was indeed on his side, and the rebellion
started.

37.  Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar created
a conflict of interest among the Jews. He
took the best and brightest (including
Daniel) and brought them to the palace,
using incentives to shift their loyalty.
 Pharma reps do this. Lobbyists do it. Men
who like hot women do it. Gifts change
our perceptions and make us want to
reciprocate. (Recall that people preferred
art from the gallery which was indirectly

38.  Daniel and 3 of his friends were tops, but
refused the things that the king tried to
lavish on them.
 From this, we learn to try as hard as we
can not to accept things which can sway
our judgment.
 Exodus 23:8 “Take no bribes, for a bribe
makes you ignore something that you
clearly see. A bribe makes even a

39.  Is there a thing as too much honesty?
 There are many competing values—
honesty, preservation of life, peace in the
family. Sometimes they may seem
incompatible.
 In Judaism, sometimes one value was
seen as trumping another. This is in
opposition to, say, 18th century
philosopher Immanuel Kant’s view.

41.  Kant famously put forward the idea that one
should never compromise when it comes to
honesty. Kant believed that honesty was a
mark of rationality, and that rationality was
the foundation of human dignity. One
critique challenges Kant’s premise with the
following scenario: Imagine that somebody
wants to murder your friend, and you’ve
hidden your friend in your house. The would-
be murderer asks you whether your friend is
hiding in your house. Even then, Kant says,

42.  After Rahab hid the Israelite spies on her
roof among the stalks of flax (Joshua 2:6),
she told the messengers of the King of
Jericho (who were pursuing the Israelites)
that the men in question had already left, and
exactly where they went she did not know
(2:4-5). However, (1) the Israelites had not
left, and (2) she knew exactly where they
were. In fact, after speaking to the king’s
men, she went back up to the roof to speak
with them and to help them safely escape

43.  How can “lying lips” be “an abomination
to the Lord” (Proverbs 12:22), while at
the same time God spared Rahab from
the destruction of Jericho (Joshua 2:9-21;
6:22-25). How is it that “all liars shall
have their part in the lake which burns
with fire and brimstone” (Revelation
21:8), and yet Rahab be commended
twice by New Testament writers?

44.  By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish
with those who did not believe, when she
had received the spies with peace
(Hebrews 11:31).
 [W]as not Rahab the harlot also justified
by works when she received the
messengers and sent them out another
way (James 2:25)?

46.  Are all sins equal? Is there a little
sin? A big sin?
 Consider that Moses said to Aaron,
“What did this people do to you, that
you have brought such great sin
upon them?” (Exodus 32:21)
 And that the LORD said, "The outcry
against Sodom and Gomorrah is so

47.  Killing an entire race of people is
intuitively worse than stealing a candy
bar; raping your neighbor's child is far
worse than fibbing and telling a coworker
that you like her new hair.
 Sins may be equal in their ability to
separate, but some are far worse and
more far-reaching in their ability to
influence other souls negatively.

48.  Exo 20:16 says not to bear false witness.
 Not just about lying.
 Later on, in Deuteronomy 19:15–21, there is a
description of a scene in which the judges start
to doubt a witness. In such a case, the text
instructs, the judges should make a thorough
investigation of the witness’s testimony, and if
they find the witness to be lying: “then do to the
false witness as that witness intended to do to
the other party. You must purge the evil from
among you. The rest of the people will hear of
this and be afraid, and never again will such an

49.  Why such a strong stance?
 Because false testimony can have a
devastating effect on innocent people.
 But as we learned from the “bad apple”
experiment, one outright cheater/liar in
public can cause a plague of dishonesty.
 It also interferes with good governance.

52.  Restore your moral energy.
 Rules and self-control, too. The more
decisions we have to make, the less our
self control.
 In this case, the decisions are made for
you.
 Studies performed showed that smokers
had less cravings on the Sabbath.

53.  Good moral rules need to be simple. (AA, 10 C)
 They need to be precise.
 They have to link back to a larger meaning.
 If the rule is set in an arbitrary way (exercise for
thirty minutes, three times a week; eat two pieces of
fruit and up to two thousand calories a day), the rule
itself, and breaking it, is going to be relatively
meaningless. But if the rules link us to other people
(we are all doing this together), to some other larger
purpose (this is what good people do), or to a deep
belief (God’s commandments), breaking the rule is
more difficult and less likely to happen. In AA, for
example, everything is linked to a sense of surrender
to a “higher power.”

54.  There are many stories in the Bible that
relate to the questions raised in this book.
There is the story of Zacchaeus and how
forgiveness gave him the opportunity to
start fresh (related to Part 1); the question
of the fudge factor and Abraham’s not-so-
white lies (Part 2); of how Daniel and his
friends resolved their conflict of interest
(Part 3); of how the Sabbath helps us

55.  of Rahab the prostitute possibly changing
the course of her life with one act of
goodness that led to other kind acts (Part
5); of self-deception and idolatry (Part 6);
of King Solomon’s creativity and social
connections leading him to cheat more
and more (Part 7 and 8); of Jacob and
Rebekah’s collaborative cheating (Part
9); and many, many more.

56.  Honesty and timelines—the period
before, during, and after cheating.
 Which is the best time to prevent it?
 Our society relies on after-effects.
 But remember, we found out that the
SMORC isn’t what happens in real life,
so rationally considering punitive things
doesn’t happen.

57.  In contrast, the general approach of
Christianity is to deal directly with the period
before we cheat and the period in which we
have the opportunity to cheat. First,
Christianity attempts to influence our mind-
set before we are tempted, by creating moral
education and—let’s not forget—guilt. The
basic understanding is that if we want to curb
dishonesty, we need to think about education
and calibrating the moral compass, rather
than threatening punishment after the fact

58.  Second, Christianity attempts to
influence our mind-sets in the moment of
temptation by incorporating different
moral reminders into our environment.
Here, the basic idea is that once we have
a moral compass, it’s a good idea to keep
it in good working order, with
appropriate adjustments in real time, if
we expect it to operate at full capacity.