Cheating Sociology

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(Tagged August 2005)

Cheating is defined as an act of deception, fraud, trickery, imposture, or imposition. Cheating characteristically is employed to create an unfair advantage, usually in one's own interest, and often at the expense of others. Cheating may imply the breaking of rules. The term "cheating" is less applicable to the breaking of laws, as illegalactivities are referred to by specific legal terminology such as fraudor corruption.

Education

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A common venue for cheating is in educationsettings, where it takes a number of forms. Cheating on testsmay include the sharing of information among test takers or the use of covert notes or crib sheets. Obtaining the questions or answers to a test ahead of time is another form of cheating. On essay assignments or term papers cheating often takes the form of plagiarism. Internet plagiarism is a growing concern. Some schools subscribe to services which help them detect this type of cheating. Most colleges have written policies defining and punishing plagiarism/those who use it. Of course, teachers may cheat as well, robbing their students of marks if they feel that the students' personality does not mesh with their own, and assigning marks arbitrarily despite the quality of work presented. This takes the form of assignments or exams being rated (but not returned) to the students, thus presenting a facade of impartiality and due process, and preventing students from examining their own work for evidence of the occurrence of such cheating.

Cheating is considered both unethicaland immoralby most, and may face stiff punishmentif discovered. Although some faculty indicate they are reluctant to take action against suspected cheaters. Academic honor codesappear to reduce cheating; nonetheless, it remains quite common among students.

A 2005 survey by the Center for Academic Integrityreported that 70% of American college students admitted to some cheating. The survey indicated that cheating is also a problem in high schools, where 60% of students in public and parochial schoolsadmitted to plagiarism. Instances occur where teachers and school administrators have been implicated in cheating on tests to improve their students' scores. Generally, an exaggerated emphasis on the significance of performance test scores triggers the motivation to cheat among some individuals.

Sport

Another venue where cheating remains common is in sport. While the rules of competition/games/sport are artificial and arbitrary, an implicit agreement exists among participants that they will play by the rules and eschew unfair measures to win. Cheaters violate the spirit and/or the letter of the rules of competition. A prevalent instance is the current epidemic of performance-enhancing drugssuch as steroidsand other forms of doping by athletes. Such tactics imply cheating even when not explicitly against the rules, as it gives both an unnatural and unfair advantage to the user. Another example of cheating frequently seen in sport is the use of nonregulation (vis-a-vis the rules) equipment. Attempting to intentionally injure an opponent is an instance of poor sportsmanship that borders on cheating.

Personal relationships

With regard to human relationships, couples may expect sexual monogamyof each other. If so, then cheating commonly refers to forms of infidelity, particularly adultery.

However, many people consider cheating to be any violation of the mutually agreed-upon rules or boundaries of a relationship, which may or may not include sexual monogamy. For example, in polyamory, the concepts of commitment and fidelitydo not hinge on sexual or emotional monogamy.

Business

Within the business district, many high seats are reserved for the elite. However these occupations may seem unreachable to the honest man working today. Many of those currently in these seats have committed immoral acts, such as deception and trickery, to reach their position. They may justify their amount of "cheating" with principles such as Niccolò Machiavelli's "The Ends Justify the Means". Such characters fought in order to reach the top and would find any way possible to reach a height of importance.

Evolutionary theory

Within the context of evolutionary theory, cheating often refers an individual of a speciesnot upholding its end of a cooperative bargain. For instance, individuals within some species of birdsare known to place their eggs in another unknowing individual?s nest, thus ?cheating? the recipient out of the strategic resources needed to keep the egg warm.

Reference

Cheating

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