Psychology Honesty Essay

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Psychopath

The research by Mazar, Amir & Ariely (2008) shows that ordinary people often find ways they can cheat and still believe themselves to be honest. People do this by rationalizing their actions, and preserving a self-concept of honesty and integrity. Most people are willing to stretch or manipulate their moral codes under certain circumstances, particularly when they can find ways of maintaining a self-concept or project the image of being honest.

A psychopath would be theoretically less concerned with self-concept or reputation than the ordinary person. Like anyone else, psychopaths will be driven to "minimize risk to themselves," and ensure they do not get caught (Grohol, n.d.). The ordinary people in the Mazar, Amir & Ariely (2008) study likewise do not want to get caught. The psychopath might be more inclined to cheat for the sake of cheating, more often than the ordinary person who cheats primarily for things like financial gain or in competitive scenarios (Mazar, Amir & Ariely, 2008).

If Mazar, Amir & Ariely (2008) were to redesign their cheating studies so that the experimental group were clinically diagnosed psychopaths, versus a control group of persons with no mental illness diagnosis, the results of the studies might be different. In particular, the psychopaths would tend to respond less robustly to attempted controls such as the use of religion as a motivator (Experiment 1), through honesty and commitment reminders (Experiment 2), or any experiment that directly hinges on self-concept. One exception may arise if the researchers were to design a study in which the consequences of being caught were to somehow infringe on the rights or reputation of the psychopath.

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Given the psychopath often manipulates other people or the environment so as to not get caught, the research would reveal that if getting caught were a certain consequence, the psychopath might refrain from cheating. The psychopath may be aware of the social stigma against cheating, but conforming to social norms is not the concern as it is for an average person. A psychopath would not care to be labeled as a cheater, but would not experience any cognitive dissonance regarding self-concept. It is not as if psychopaths view themselves as being honest; it is more likely they simply view themselves as being opportunistic. Glenn et al. (2010) found that psychopaths do not "construe their personal identities in moral terms," (p. 1). The average person, however, clearly values moral foundations (Mazar, Amir & Ariely, 2008).

Likewise, the psychopath would be as much or even less inclined to trust other people. In the Fetchenhauer & Dunning (2010) research on the prevalence of cynicism, skepticism, and mistrust, the findings show that a surprising number of people are loathe to trust others. Psychopaths tend to be highly intelligent and calculating and therefore not prone to gullibility (Grohol, n.d.). A psychopath would not be trustworthy, but nor would he or she trust others. The underlying presumption would be that each person has the capacity to bend and twist moral codes to their benefit, and because of that, there….....

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