Days before the start of term at Harvard University last month, a story came to light that disheartened professors in America and beyond.
About 125 students in an Introduction to Congress class were being investigated for cheating in a take-home exam. Many of those under investigation were student-athletes, including the co-captains of the basketball team.
While the allegations remain unproven, they raise a broader question: whether at Harvard or elsewhere, what impels students to cheat and thereby risk their education?
Dan Ariely, a professor of behaviour economics at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, which has a presence in Dubai, suspects "social contagion" might be partly to blame.
Indeed, the accused students constitute almost half of the 279-pupil class in question.
"When one person cheats it is easier for other people to be dishonest," explains Mr Ariely, the author of The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty.
Some of them would be friends, which might also have played a role.
"We have seen in many experiments that helping other people makes people feel more entitled to cheat," he says.
The alleged incident was all the more shocking because of where it took place - which reveals an interesting fact about attitudes of cheating.
People, according to Mr Ariely, have a tendency to see others as good or bad and they do not always understand the role environment plays in cheating.
"The reality is that many people, if you put them in a situation and tempt them to behave badly, [if] they can help a friend misbehave, [they] will misbehave."
Mr Ariely says many people look at scandals involving chief executives having lied on their CVs and think they themselves would not have done it.
"Maybe [the executives] just thought about one step and once they took one step they rationalised it and took the next step," he says.
"If you think about dishonesty in that way, as a ... slippery slope, maybe it is much more understandable," he says.
But Mr Ariely is careful to point out that stealing a pen from work, say, is not necessarily the start of the decline.
People create "areas of dishonesty," which means those who take something small do not necessarily go on to steal something more valuable.
But according to research that Mr Ariely was involved in, an attribute seen as positive by employers makes people more likely to cheat: creativity.
Creative people are more likely to commit devious deeds such as stealing from their employer because they find it easier to justify it, Mr Ariely says.
"We say to ourselves things like, 'Everyone else is doing it,' or 'Nobody will get harmed,' or ... something like, 'They owe me,' or, 'The workplace didn't pay me enough'," he says.
"Our capacity to rationalise and tell ourselves stories is really quite incredible."
Some industries offer more opportunities to cheat, such as law, where lawyers and law firms charge by the hour.
"It's a question of the person but it's also a question of the environment, which environment will allow people to tell you more stories," says Mr Ariely.
The reality is it is a lot easier to weed out cheats in a take-home exam than it is in the workplace. But there is something companies can do to try to prevent it.
"I don't think you want to not have creative people. But I do think you want to limit the opportunities of creative people to tell stories about why what they're doing is OK," adds Mr Ariely.
Meanwhile, Harvard is left to remind the world it is not a den of iniquity.
"We must ... not forget that the vast majority of our students complete all their assignments honestly, diligently and in accordance with our regulations and practices," Michael Smith, the dean of the faculty of arts and sciences, was quoted as saying in the Harvard Gazette, the university newsletter.
gduncan@thenational.ae
Glossary of a stock market revolution
Reddit
A discussion website
Redditor
The users of Reddit
Robinhood
A smartphone app for buying and selling shares
Short seller
Selling a stock today in the belief its price will fall in the future
Short squeeze
Traders forced to buy a stock they are shorting
Naked short
An illegal practice
Adele: The Stories Behind The Songs
Caroline Sullivan
Carlton Books
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20SAMSUNG%20GALAXY%20Z%20FOLD%204
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Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
Anna and the Apocalypse
Director: John McPhail
Starring: Ella Hunt, Malcolm Cumming, Mark Benton
Three stars
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
ANATOMY%20OF%20A%20FALL
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88 Video's most popular rentals
Avengers 3: Infinity War: an American superhero film released in 2018 and based on the Marvel Comics story.
Sholay: a 1975 Indian action-adventure film. It follows the adventures of two criminals hired by police to catch a vagabond. The film was panned on release but is now considered a classic.
Lucifer: is a 2019 Malayalam-language action film. It dives into the gritty world of Kerala’s politics and has become one of the highest-grossing Malayalam films of all time.
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
