The Cheating Culture

I read this post by David Callahan, who wrote a book called The Cheating Culture, and has a Weblog to discuss (and, of course, promote) it.

There are dozens of comments on it thus far. Some of them refer to a paler shade of cheating -- that is, cheating is OK since it's prevalent in that environment, where it is acceptable and everyone is an aware participant. An equivalent of the "little white lie", if you will... everyone does it.

From what I've glanced at, Callahan seems to be talking particularly about cheating on tests, not spouses, although it will probably be discussed in the book (if I were inclined to buy it)...

There are all kinds of situations in which people are regularly caught in some form of cheating:

* road tests (people sitting in for others)
* drug-enhanced sport
* university exams
* driving as a single occupant in the HOV lane
* sneaking into the cinema
* copying software
* queue-jumping
* job applications
* ticket scalping
... et cetera ...

Some situations seem more benign than others -- how upset are people going to be when you sneak your own food into a cinema (unless it's really pungent or offensive)? Probably not a bit. But if you were waiting in the passport office with a roomful of others in a 3-hour queue, and your friend the passport officer waves you over, imagine the lynch-mob mentality that could ensue...

My question is, when you engage in cheating-type activity -- and we all do (I've committed the above two offenses, I'll say that) -- then how do you rationalize it to yourself? Maybe another way of putting it is, how do you judge it OK/not OK to cheat? Or, do you say it's never OK?

I'll go first.

1) Guilt factor: how many people can this affect? I'd rather cheat a big, faceless corporation than people I know. (I'll put a rebuttal to myself: cheating costs are passed to the consumer.)

Your turn. (I'll understand if you prefer to be anonymous, but if you say you've never cheated, we all know you're telling porkies.)