I don't like to think of myself as a cheater, it's a hard identity to have. And yet, I have been susceptible to small acts of cheating in the past. I have used generative AI on college tests rationalizing it because the "test wasn't fair." I have downloaded hacks for Minecraft rationalizing it as "having a little fun." And I have taken more than one piece of candy at Halloween because "there was a lot of candy in that bowl." There are a few main reasons I and many others cheat, hack, and take short cuts in life. **Firstly, there are often extrinsic incentives for doing so.** A 2011 study by researchers in the Netherlands, for example, found that people were more likely to cheat on a task when given what are called "performance-related goals" rather than "mastery goals[^1]." That is if they were incentivized by some extrinsic reward rather than the intrinsic reward of simply improving, they were more likely to cheat. External rewards can incentivize us to find the "short cut" to accomplishing a certain goal as fast as possible. This often takes the form of cheating. Intrinsic motivation, however, encourages us to take the longer path--no cheating--because there is no incentive to finish something as fast as possible. This is why creative tasks can so often be hurt by extrinsic rewards as is explained in [[Drive by Daniel H. Pink]]. We want to do it for its own sake. As Robert Pirsig says in [[Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance]], "When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things." **Second, cheating, hacking, and taking short cuts is supercharged by [[Behavioral contagion]].** If you're friends or people in your environment are doing so, you're more likely to do so. **Third, the more abstract you make the cheating, hacking, or short cutting, the more easy it is to do.** Hacking Fortnite to get more V-bucks is one thing, lying about your taxes with real money is another. It's easier to rationalize things when they are more abstract. How can we navigate this? We shouldn't entirely get rid of cheating, hacking, or taking short cuts. Everyone does them. It's the degree to which we do them that matters. I think one of the ways you could diminish the likelihood of doing them is by looking at your behavior from an outside perspective. Would a friend consider what you are doing cheating, hacking, or short cutting? That can help you break out of your own self-serving rationalizations. How can you surround yourself with people who do behavior you want to do? How can you make this situation more concrete instead of abstract? I learned a lot of this from [[Getting Gamers]]. [^1]: Nico Van Yperen, Melvyn Hamstra, and Marloes Van Der Klauw, “To Win, or Not to Lose, at Any Cost: The Impact of Achievement Goals on Cheating,” British Journal of Management 22 (2011), doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2010.00702.x.