已领丨theinvisibledownsideofcheat

　　source：bbcbyTomStafford
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　　Honestymaybethebestpolicy，butlyinghasitsmeritsevenwhenwearedeceivingourselves。Numerousstudieshaveshownthatthosewhoarepractisedintheartofselfdeceptionmightbemoresuccessfulinthespheresofsportandbusiness。Theymightevenbehappierthanpeoplewhoarealwaystruetothemselves。Butisthereeveradownsidetobelievingourownlies？
　　AningeniousstudybyZoeChanceofYaleUniversitytestedtheidea，bywatchingwhathappenswhenpeoplecheatontests。
　　ChanceandcolleaguesranexperimentswhichinvolvedaskingstudentstoanswerIQandgeneralknowledgequestions。Halftheparticipantsweregivenacopyofthetestpaperwhichhadapparentlyinerrorbeenprintedwiththeanswerslistedatthebottom。Thismeanttheyhadtoresistthetemptationtocheckorimprovetheiranswersagainsttherealanswersastheywentalong。
　　Adexpect，someoftheseparticipantscouldn’thelpbutcheat。Collectively，teventhoughbothgroupsofparticipantswereselectedatrandomfromstudentsatthesameuniversity，sowere，onaverage，ofsimilarability。（Wtknowforsurewhowascheatingprobablysomeofthepeoplewhohadanswerswouldhavegothighscoresevenwithouttheanswersbutitmeansthattheaverageperformanceinthegroupwaspartlydowntoindividualsmarts，andpartlydowntohavingtheanswersathand。）
　　ThecrucialquestionforCsresearchwasthis：didpeopleinthe“cheater”dbeenrelyingontheanswers？Ordidtheyattributetheirsuccessinthetestssolelytotheirownintelligence？
　　Tddoonafollowuptest。Theywereallowedtoquicklyglanceoverthesecondtestsheetsothattheycouldseethatitinvolvedthesamekindofquestionsand，importantly，thatnoanswershadbeenmistakenlybeenprintedatthebottomthistime。Theresearchersreasonedthatifthestudentswhohadcheatedrealisedthatcheatingwasn’tanoptionthesecondtimearound，tdoaswellonthissecondtest。
　　Notso。Selfdeceptionwontheday。Tdhadaccesstotheanswerspredicted，onaverage，dgethigherscoresonthefollowupequivalenttogivingthemsomethinglikea10pointIQboost。Whentested，ofcourse，theyscoredfarlower。
　　Theresearchersrananotherexperimenttocheckthattheeffectwasreallyduetothecheaters’inflatedbeliefintheirownabilities。Inthisexperiment，studentswereofferedacashrewardforaccuratelypredictingtheirscoresonthesecondtest。Sureenough，thosewhohadbeengiventheopportunitytocheatoverestimatedtheirabilityandlostoutearning20lessthantheotherstudents。
　　TheimplicationisthatpeopleinCsexperimentpeopleverymuchlikeyouandmehadtrickedthemselvesintobelievingtheyweresmarterthantheywere。Theremaybebenefitsfromdoingthisconfidence，satisfaction，ormoreeasilygainingthetrustofothersbuttherearealsocertainlydisadvantages。Wlldo，rebetterthanyouare。
　　Thatselfdeceptionhasitscostshassomeinterestingimplications。Morally，mostofuswouldsaythatselfdeceptioniswrong。Butasidefromwhetherselfdeceptionisundesirable，weshouldexpectittobepresentinallofustosomedegree（becauseofthebenefits），buttobelimitedaswell（becauseofthecosts）。
　　Stsomethingthatisalwaysbetterinlargerdosestheremustbeanamountofitforwhichthebenefitsoutweighthecosts，mostofthetime。Wreprobablyallselfdeceivingtosomedegree。Theironybeing，becauseitisselfdeception，tknowhowoften。