OP, you would probably enjoy a philosophy class in college where you explore if we humans are innately good or innately bad or a mix thereof.
World religions try to have answers (e.g. the Christian original sin plus consequences) or philosophers (e.g. Thomas Hobbes’ “Leviathan”).
In my view, morality is unfortunately always subjective in a way, or we would have no wars, no crime, no violence.
I agree, morality can be SOMETIMES altered, but ONLY when situations are out of control, such as if someone attacks you and you defend yourself using physical force. Cheating, however, is always in your control, and is a choice you make yourself… No one makes you cheat.
Also, you’re misreading the study if you think it says either (a) most people (or even just most students) find cheating morally acceptable or even neutral, (b) and that most people (or even just most students) cheat.
On the latter point, yes, a majority answer yes to questions of whether they’ve ever cheated, but a minority are repeat offenders and an even smaller minority are serial offenders. (But then again, on that last one, there will always be sociopaths amongst us.)
Basically, it sounds like you’re desperately trying to justify completed or intended actions. Sorry, but even relying on just your own cherry-picked evidence you have no real basis for that.
Just curious, how is cheating being defined for discussion?
In my view, there’s a world of difference between copying the math homework and cheating off a test or plagiarizing an essay. I don’t think copying a worksheet really counts as cheating, but I know some people do.
Also, this distinction can greatly affect any statistics on cheating. If copying homework (simple homework like a bunch of math problems or a worksheet) occasionally is considered cheating, I don’t think I know anybody who doesn’t cheat. When you start talking about cheating on tests, that’s another story.
It seems to be merely an academic convention to me, instead of being a moral issue. I find this article to be quite convincing:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/plagiarism-is-not-a-big-moral-deal/
If the student came from a low-income, fragile household and these are the values that he/she were born in and brought up in, can you really blame them? There is unanimous scientific support that the behavior/personality/brain development of a person is determined by prenatal through 6 years of age. If the student grew up in a stressful environment with all these problems and this is the thinking that surrounded him/her, can you really blame them? This thinking can apply to other scenarios as well. Is a robber or thief, if he/she comes from a poor background, really at fault?
Or how about you have to support your family by working 9-hour shifts at McDonald’s as soon as you come home from school.
So, it depends on the student’s background for me to justify if he/she was really at fault for cheating or not.
Also, a lot of you say that it is unfair to you that a person cheats while you study/put in more effort. And I agree with you guys, but think about this. If you come from a middle/upper class family, you are inherently miles ahead academically than someone with much less. Now, is this fair to the poorer student?
Can you blame him for at least trying to break out of a continuous, generational cycle of poverty?
Because if you come from a poor family, then it is VERY, VERY difficult to break out of it. Can you blame a guy for at least trying to escape an impossible dark pit?
I hope someone who grew up in poverty comes by and soundly rebuffs that. What an assumption to make.
I always find it interesting how posters respond when they don’t hear what they seem to want to hear. If you pull up a simple definition of the word cheat you will find–“to break a rule or law to gain an advantage at something,” “to take something from someone by lying or breaking a rule,” or “to prevent someone from having or getting something that he or she deserves or was expecting to get” (miriam-webster.com). I find it hard to argue that any of these behaviors listed are appropriate, and whether or cheating is “deeply” or “casually” immoral (whatever that means) still doesn’t make it right.
If you are trying to sooth your conscience I don’t think you are going to find the answer you are seeking here.
@bodangles Yes there are anecdotal stories of a person who comes out of poverty, but those are VERY, VERY rare when you look at the whole picture. You are simply ignoring scholarly facts and statistics. It is so, so, so naive to assume that everyone in America has an equal chance of success.
Don’t belive me?
Read Page 259 of Jeffrey Sachs’s book, The Age of Sustainable Development.
Read This: http://www.npr.org/2012/07/10/155103564/cycle-of-poverty-hard-to-break-in-poorest-u-s-city
Listen to the research found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPJLGW5gHXs
It is NOT assumption. It is a FACT that is widely agreed upon in the academic community.
You are living in a bubble if you believe that the American Dream is alive and well for everyone in poverty.
Coming from one of those aforementioned “poor families”, I stand by my principles and I do not cheat. Cheating is a decision that you consciously make. Your background has no relevance whatsoever. I have lived through many stressful situations, and never have I cheated. Honestly, about your last statement, it is not impossible to break out of the cycle. Through hard work and sheer determination, it is possible to get out of poverty. @PartyNextDoor
@Kelvin82 Again, personal anecdotes are cool and all, and I praise you for what you have done, but you are ignoring facts.
If you believe that your background has no impact on your personality and character, and that the cycle of poverty is breakable for all, you are simply ignoring established research and facts. Yes it can be done, but it is VERY VERY unlikely.
I know this is not what we want to hear, but this is what is happening. It is foolish to place anecdotal evidence over established, scientific research.
Not saying everybody has the same advantages. I’m saying if I had grown up with that background and saw someone prattling on about how poor students are proven to be cheaters but shouldn’t be blamed for it, I’d be incensed.
ETA: It cheapens their accomplishments. You literally just disregarded someone’s firsthand experience with “That’s cool and all.”
I’m not saying that everyone is like that.
Coming from a poor, stressful background creates conditions that are conducive to immorality.
But, notice how I didn’t say poor students are immoral, worthless beings.
I’m making the case that coming from a poor background makes things a lot harder for students, and since the topic was morality, I made the assertion that these conditions must be taken into account before we can judge.
Sorry, but “I’m poor” is not a justification for cheating.
Yes, because I value STATISTICAL, RESEARCHED FACTS over personal anecdotes.
I do not understand how you can place ANECDOTES over FACTS.
If you find a conflicting piece of research, I’d love to hear your counter-argument with that.
But just because one person said X, that doesn’t make X magically justifiable.
Yes, there are anomalies, but it is so foolish to use personal anomalies as justification.
@mathyone
It doesn’t necessarily even have to be poor, but studies have shown that coming fragmented household will determine the way you interact and the way you behave.
You are a absolute mirror of how you grew up. I am even making the assertion that no human being is inherently bad or immoral. It is the experiences beyond his/her control that shape that person. Can you blame them for that?
Hmmm…Doesn’t seem quite right.
There—fixed it. That fits my reading of the literature much better.
@dfbdfb Hmm, I guess we’re reading different things here.
Scandinavian nations have implemented Early Childhood Learning programs because of this very research.
Harvard has formed the Harvard University Center on the Developing Child, which emphasizes that the biology of health is cumulative over time and embedded during very sensitive periods, especially during brain formation
To quote Jeffrey Sachs, a leading scholar in the field who is heading UN projects along with Secretary General Ban Ki Moon towards sustainable development and who has spent years researching this very topic:
“Scientists studying brain development of young children and the overall physiological development have COME TO THE CONCLUSION that the cumulative amount of stress that a young child faces will shape the child’s cognitive and physical developments and conditions as an adult.”
This was also claimed by the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs in 2000.
And this:
"Research over the past twenty years has shown the startlingly important effects of early childhood development, especially during the first three years, when the brain develops in many dynamic and important ways. If those three years are a period of excessive environmental stress, (e.g., a household marked by violence, noise, and lack of security), repeated illnesses or undernutrition, or the lack of adequate cognitive stimulus and educational preparation, a young child will likely incur liabilities that may be impossible to overcome during school years or later.
Jeffery Sachs, Age of Sustainable Development, Page 256 and 257.
And this:
"There is consistent and strong evidence which shows that:
UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org/earlychildhood/index_40748.html)
You don’t think that Scandinavia, Harvard, Jeffrey Sachs, and the United Nations are sufficient evidence to confirm this?
Sadly, when I google that Early childhood development does NOT shape us, I am greeted with opinionated blogs and actually websites that essentially say: Yes, it is not agreed that we are shaped by our early childhood experiences, but now the question becomes just how exactly do they impact us.
@PartyNextDoor I’m sorry, you value these facts over anecdotes, but wouldn’t an anecdote also be a fact? A famous example I can think of is Dr. Ben Carson. He came from a relatively poor family (poverty), with a single mother (fragmented), yet he attended Yale, and eventually became a neurosurgeon. Excuse this anecdote, but Carson wasn’t born into the best of situations, but he is not immoral, he has done incredibly noble things, so saying “oh, can you blame poor people?” Is generalizing a category of people.
Has it been shown that poor kids are more likely to cheat?