[CQ-Contest] Cheating

[David Gilbert]

I understand the political correctness of that statement, but I 
guarantee that it isn't accurate.  I've written on this subject at 
length before, but the reality is that WAY more of us will cheat under 
the right circumstances:

a.  we perceive that a rule is unwarranted or unfair

b.  we perceive that cheating is a way to correct some imbalance in 
circumstances

c.  we perceive that many others are cheating and that we are at a 
disadvantage if we don't

c.  we don't think we will get caught because of poor visibility or 
anonymity

d.  the stakes are high enough to warrant the risk of getting caught

e.  we consider it a challenge to cheat without getting caught

I didn't make those things up.  They're all discussed in various 
sociological studies on the behavior of cheating that can be found with 
a little internet searching, and all of the factors can be found in ham 
radio contesting.  If anyone thinks that giving in to one or more of 
those factors is limited to 0.1 percent of our ranks, consider what 
percentage of people fudge on their tax returns, go through a stop sign 
if nobody is around, have affairs  .... or even loot stores in a 
disaster.  Cheating in one form or another isn't an aberration in humans 
... it's closer to being the norm.

73,
Dave   AB7E





On 7/17/2012 10:35 PM, Tree wrote:
> Hello fellow contesters.
>
> Let me preface this message by first saying that I believe 99.9 percent of
> contesters play by the rules.  This message talks about the 0.01 percent
> who don't.