From the Book - First edition.
Why is Dishonesty so Interesting? From Enron to our own misbehaviors ; A fascination with cheating ; Becker's parking problem and the birth of national crime ; Elderly volunteers and petty thieves ; Why behavioral economics and dishonesty?
1. Testing the Simple Model of Rational Crime (SMORC). Get rich cheating ; Tempting people to cheat, the measure of dishonesty ; What we know versus what we think we know about dishonesty ; Cheating when we can't get caught ; Market vendors, cab drivers, and cheating the blind ; Fishing and tall tales ; Striking a balance between truth and cheating
2. Fun With the Fudge Factor. Why some things are easier to steal than others ; How companies pave the way for dishonesty ; Token dishonesty ; How pledges, commandments, honor codes, and paying with cash can support honesty ; But lock your doors just the same ; And a bit about religion, the IRS, and insurance companies
2B. Golf .Man versus himself ; A four-inch lie ; Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to take the mulligan ; Schrödinger's scorecard
3. Blinded by Our Own Motivations. Craze lines, tattoos, and how conflicts of interest distort our perception ; How favors affect our choices ; Why full disclosure and other policies aren't fully effective ; Imagining less conflicted compensation ; Disclosure and regulation are the answers, or not
4. Why We Blow it When We're Tired. Why we don't binge in the morning ; Willpower: another limited resource ; Judgment on an empty stomach ; How flexing our cognitive and moral muscles can make us more dishonest ; Self-depletion and a rational theory of temptation
5. Why Wearing Fakes Makes us Cheat More. The secret language of shoes ; From ermine to Armani and the importance of signaling ; Do knockoffs knock down our standards of honesty? ; Can gateway fibs lead to monster lies? ; When "what the hell" wreaks havoc ; There's no such thing as one little white lie ; Halting the downward spiral.
6. Cheating Ourselves. Claws and peacock tails ; When answer keys tell us what we already knew ; Overly optimistic IQ scores ; The center for advanced hindsight ; Being Kubrick ; War heroes and sports heroes who let us down ; Helping ourselves to a better self-image
7. Creativity and Dishonesty: We are All Storytellers. The tales we tell ourselves and how we create stories we can believe ; Why creative people are better liars ; Redrawing the lines until we see what we want ; When irritation spurs us onward ; How thinking creatively can get us into trouble
8. Cheating as an Infection: How we Catch the Dishonesty Germ. Catching the cheating bug ; One bad apple really does spoil the barrel (unless that apple goes to the University of Pittsburgh) ; How ambiguous rules + group dynamics = cultures of cheating ; A possible road to ethical health
9. Collaborative Cheating: Why Two Heads Aren't Necessarily Better Than One. Lessons from an ambiguous boss ; All eyes are on you: observation and cheating ; Working together to cheat more? ; Or keeping one another in line ; Cheating charitably ; Building trust and taking liberties ; Playing well with others
10. A Semioptimistic Ending: People Don't Cheat Enough!. Cheer up! Why we should not be too depressed by this book ; True crime ; Cultural differences in dishonesty ; Politicians or bankers, who cheats more? ; How can we improve our moral health?
