Would you green-light cheating if you wouldn’t get caught red-handed?
A poll by Junior Achievement, a group that teaches kids about the business world, found that 33 percent of teens would act unethically to make money or to get ahead if no one else would find out.
Peer competition or the need for approval can set the stage for cheating, says Joshua Aronson, a professor of psychology at New York University. Even parents with good intentions often frame honesty in terms of external pressures. “The parent who teaches that you should be honest because you can get caught, or that you should be honest or else you’ll feel guilty, teaches in terms of consequences as opposed to internal principle,” says Dan Batson, a professor of psychology at the University of Kansas.
