Why is cheating bad?

[Ascarus]

i want the OP to be first in line to see the doctor who cheated on all his / her exams.

 

[sky14kemea]

I like to think it depends what you cheat on. 8D

I'm notorious with my friends for, let's say, "Tipping the balance" when we play card games or board games. (Which basicaly means yes, I'll cheat if I see an opportunity to do so).

See, my stance on this is that if you're going to cheat at a game, why bother playing at all?

Also, since I now know this, I got my eye on you come Escapism UK =_=

I don't cheat at all of them.

And that's a good idea. I'll be watching you too. o_o

 

[00slash00]

the fact that your only argument is, "its unfair that i fail a test just because i dont have the skill of knowledge that is being tested," says far more than i ever could

but if i were to give it a shot i suppose my answer would be...George W. Bush

 

[randomsix]

It depends on what it is.
If it's something that you need to know for your job, like say medical school for a doctor, then it's bad. If, on the other hand, it's something you won't use in your profession, then I see nothing wrong with it.

If it has nothing to do with your profession, then why are you cheating to be perceived as better than you actually are at it?

Captcha: trust me

 

[Evil Smurf]

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Cheats are bad because they give an unfair advantage to you, if everyone cheats then that is fair. That rarely happens though.

 

[Dwarfare]

I never much cared for the saying "Life isn't fair."

Sure, it's not entirely, but it's usually an excuse to be unfair to someone.

As I see it, barring natural disasters and incredibly bad luck and the like, life tends to be as fair as you and the others around you make it.

As well to say "Life isn't kind" and then hit someone in the face simply to attempt to make a quite unrelated point. Oh, sure sure, it's true in many sense, life tends to be unkind, particularly certain aspects. But attempting to deliberately create a self-fulfilling prophecy based purely on the purposeful detriment to others is, for lack of a better term coming to my head at the moment, a real dick move. It hardly serves as justification for one's actions, which each person is both responsible and accountable for.

A better, albeit longer, saying would be something like "Life isn't always fair, but everything in our control we have the power to make fair." You can make fair that which is even mostly within your control, so sitting about making excuses for why you're needlessly being a douchebag is hardly reasonable in any sense. Life isn't fair, but the difference between the person making the excuse and life itself tends to be a rather broad gap, so better to be truthful and say "I'm not fair", at which point the speaker will hopefully take a solid blow to the chin while someone records it and I can watch gleefully. The more control a person has over a situation, the more he is accountable for how that situation plays out.

Right, cheating... Unfair advantage, totally within the control of those involved, and therefor totally subject to determination of fairness from many standpoints and to be punished according to in authority whose jurisdiction the act falls under.

 

[Twilight_guy]

It's against the rules and its dishonest. Without going into morality and long winded discussions of right and wrong better left to philosophy majors, It's portraying yourself in an untrue light and although you can get away with it, it's morally wrong, and it will destroy trust immediately when exposed. Never underestimate the importance of trust, it is literally the only thing keeping real people from acting like the dicks they are on the internet, now that's a powerful force.

 

[Reishadowen]

I believe a wise man once said: "Screw the rules, I have money!"

That would probably be my second favorite quote, right after one I live my life by: "Always cheat, always win. The only unfair battle is one that you lose."

As in all things however, I believe context is important. There's a difference between cheating a system, rigid, and entirely rule-based for the a general principle-keeping task, and cheating actual people. The ones you shouldn't cheat are the ones you can make cry. (unless you manage to make a machine cry, in which case you are EPIC.)

 

[Your Fearless Captain]

Cheating on something meaningless like the SAT or whatever test you had to take is fine in my opinion. It measures nothing other then your ability to take a meaningless test.

 

[lacktheknack]

Ever been graded on a curve? It's brutal, but fair.

Ever been graded on a curve with people who admit to cheating? Related: Do you know what it feels like to have the urge to set someone on fire?

 

[NightmareWarden]

There is only one form of cheating which is okay:
Cheat Codes!
I hope you realize what this means...If you break the matrix and find cheat codes for it, you are completely allowed to do whatever you want. Go nuts!

 

[Ringo_Plumen]

In general I don't think cheating is alright. However had it not been more work than actually studying I wouldn't have thought twice about cheating my way through subjects in high school I know I'd never actually care about or use in order to increase the chance of getting accepted into a desired education (not sure how grading works exactly elsewhere, but in Denmark grades in different subjects are given as numbers, and college level education then requires a few specific subjects passed(or rarely a certain grade), and a given average of all your grades in all the subjects you had, so completely unrelated subjects count as well).

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Of course, cheating will probably catch up to you at some point, and getting caught is a major deterrent, but how is cheating unfair when life itself is not fair?

Cheating isn't considered wrong because it's "unfair". It's wrong because it undermines the fundamental purpose of whatever it was you attempted.

When you attend college for example, you could cheat your way through. In some majors, that's probably sufficient but if you chose to study a field where the things you learn are important, cheating results in nothing less than wasting your own time. One learns math or they don't - if you have a job that requires you know such things, having cheated to earn a piece of paper that says you know is no more significant than paper.

In a game on the other hand it's even more obvious. Games are nothing more than closed systems of arbitrary rules. To win through bypassing such rules is meaningless because the rules are the game.

Yes, some things are not fair. Certain constructs of rules are going to cater to certain people. If you attempt to compensate for this deficiency by going outside the rules, at the very best all you've done is create a new construct. When you cheat at a game and manage to win (by whatever definition you subscribe to), all you've done is win at a game that the other people aren't playing. The same can be said of life itself.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Technically he didn't cheat. There was nothing in the rules that said he couldn't rewire the no win situation.

Actually, he did cheat. The simulation was predicated upon a system of rules. He changed that system of rules so that victory was possible. As such, while it is perfectly possible to assert that he did not cheat within the simulation, by altering the simulation he was, at the very least in violation of various ethical standards of his academy and likely in direct violation of various rules that govern the use of said simulation.

So, while he might not have cheated at the game, he certainly did at the metagame. But, then, that isn't to say that his violation was wrong. He demonstrated lateral thinking that made it possible to solve an otherwise unsolvable crisis.

 

[manic_depressive13]

Would you be OK that the auto mechanic who is about to fix your breaks to have "cheated" their way to get their certification?
Would you be OK that the doctor who is about to operate on you to have "cheated" their way through medical school?
Would you be OK that the lawyer who is about to represent you had to have "cheated" their way through the bar exam?

I mean, you're OK with cheating... Right?

It's a shame that your breaks failed and you get into a huge crash which causes your appendix to rupture.
It's also a shame that instead of removing your appendix, you were castrated instead.
It's still a shame that your easy malpractice lawsuit for millions was thrown out of court, leaving you poor and penniless.

Why would I care if someone is capable of memorising information, as long as they know how to find and apply information? For example, I would hope that a doctor who is treating me would research the latest medication and treatment techniques rather than rely on information he memorised in uni.

 

[Tsaba]

Would you be OK that the auto mechanic who is about to fix your breaks to have "cheated" their way to get their certification?
Would you be OK that the doctor who is about to operate on you to have "cheated" their way through medical school?
Would you be OK that the lawyer who is about to represent you had to have "cheated" their way through the bar exam?

I mean, you're OK with cheating... Right?

It's a shame that your breaks failed and you get into a huge crash which causes your appendix to rupture.
It's also a shame that instead of removing your appendix, you were castrated instead.
It's still a shame that your easy malpractice lawsuit for millions was thrown out of court, leaving you poor and penniless.

Why would I care if someone is capable of memorising information, as long as they know how to find and apply information? For example, I would hope that a doctor who is treating me would research the latest medication and treatment techniques rather than rely on information he memorised in uni.

because all that person has is answers to the test all they have to do is memorize them (ACCCBDAAA).
The fact that you score well on a test just shows that you are able to apply the knowledge you learn to a series of random questions that are a possibility of running into again down the road. (ie you learned basic addition and took the test and you had to use it again later on in school/work/life)

 

[144_v1legacy]

That's a very Ayn Rand-y argument to make...

I suppose you could say that,
if it doesn't get you in trouble,
if it doesn't hurt you in the long run,
if you feel it puts you in a better position in life,
if it doesn't hurt your conscience,
there is nothing wrong with cheating.

That would be the idealistic, Ayn Rand answer.

But we all know better, of course, because we have emotions and such, and live with a social understanding that implies a certain dignity in life, and to break said behavior will always hurt your credibility and image, and possibly much more.

The answer I give, therefore, is that it hurts those around you in breaking the implicit social boundaries that exist (where applicable), and the risk is generally not worth it, as the price of capture is often far steeper than the rewards of success and the paranoia of potential capture.

 

[Tiger Sora]

Well I'll give two examples in two different situations.

The test. Well if you can cheat and just write the answers in great, but did you learn it, what if it's math, can you do the formula on your own?

The economy. Cheaters got us in this mess, and stupidly were gona get them to try and get us out. I hope the need to save ones own ass will help them succeed.

Both are wrong, in the first instance it's not worth it to cheat if it's something your going to be using down the road.

The second, well, look where it got us.

 

[manic_depressive13]

because all that person has is answers to the test all they have to do is memorize them (ACCCBDAAA).
The fact that you score well on a test just shows that you are able to apply the knowledge you learn to a series of random questions that are a possibility of running into again down the road. (ie you learned basic addition and took the test and you had to use it again later on in school/work/life)

No one actually cheats like that though. No one has multiple choice tests at uni level. Generally 'cheating' involves bringing in notes that you've written, and I don't see an issue with that, seeing as most people write their own notes, or at the very least have to read through the notes in order to copy the answers, and that's learning.

 

[Tsaba]

answers to test

notes

while I agree, knowing where to locate information is a great thing, if tests are random like they are supposed to be...... then notes won't make a difference.