Is Fraud Contagious?

I deal with fraud and theft on a daily basis in my work as the Founder/Director of The Shulman Center for Compulsive Theeft and Spending. See www.theshulmancenter.com. I also wrote the books "Somethiing for Nothing: Shoplifting Addiciton and Recoveyr" and "Biting The Hand That Feeds: The Employee Theft Epidemic... New Perspectives, New Solutions." Stealing and fraud are more common than we think. These behaviors are increasing. We need to understand them and challenge them and provide alternatives to justifying and rationalizing theft. Terrence Daryl Shulman, JD,LMSW

This is stupid, after the actor proclaimed "I got them all " most of those kids thought "screw him" if he can do it so can I. It had nothing to do with cheating. The second example is equqlly as stupid. The actor says "is cheating allowed" The kids at this point figure the proctor is now watching them thanks to the actor. These popple have zero common sense.

By the same token, is virtue contagious?

Altruism is displayed in social species ranging from bacteria through humans. What this article is picking up on is variation in altruistic behavior being sensitive to social indicators of how likely the others around you are altruistic. Michael Taborsky first identified this as a theory, and has demonstrated it in wild-type Norwegian rats.

As animals, basically, humans share with the beasts the instinct to steal. Not to steal, is an idea, not an instinct, a product of human thought developed after the homo sapiens learned to speak. Not to steal is thus an acquired trait, the result of continuous suggestion, of deep conditioning by the society, in a way, a social inhibition. The moment the instinct overrides the inhibition, cheating or, theft happens.

Being animals, basically, the humans share with the beasts the instinct to steal. Not to steal is an idea, not an instinct, a product of human thought after the homo sapiens learned to speak. Not to steal is an acquired trait, the result of continuous suggestion, of deep conditioning by the society, in a way, a social inhibition. The moment the instinct overrides the inhibition, cheating or, stealing happens.

What are you all fussing about? This is America!!! The rich gets richer and the poor poorer. That's the way it has been and will always be. Nobody can do anything about that. The rich are very powerfil and can get away with just about anything. Let's face it. He will get out in no time and many lives are ruined and he will not pay back anything.

You want something for nothing? You want what is "too good to be true"? You want to feel "exclusive" by investing with someone who doesn't just take "anyone's" money? Well, then, you are officially a member of the Bernie Madoff screwed me club, and I have little sympathy for you. Anyone checking the simplest bonafides of this guy would have smelled something, as did a number of non-investors. But those too lazy, stupid and exclusive to bother got their rewards. I actually admire the guy for having the chutzpa to to pull this off. Oh, he needs to go to jail, as do the rest of his thieving family, but you just gotta love the cojones of this dude. He made history and, except for an attack of conscience, could be on the beach in venzuela right now.

Madoff is being punished. The studies might have explored whether punishment of a cheater affects contagion. I doubt whether punishment of Madoff will inhibit the contagion of his theft to others, but it will certainly affect his ability to do it again. Wait! What's to keep him from opening a new business from his cell with a smuggled cell phone? His cell will hardly be shabbier than the office out of which he operated and a pencil and notepad will do for similar bookkeeping. I want to get in on the deal early and get out before the pyramid crashes. We are born every minute.

Anytime people rely on their own sensiblities and try to run their own lives, they leave themselves open to Satan and his demons. When we put ourselves in God's hands, and let Him run our lives, it makes us so much stronger. I, myself, could never do anyhting like Madoff did, because at all times it was hurting others intentionally. The reality of it is that his, and everyone's like him, soul is in dire need. As evil as the act he did was, we should condemn that action and not the man. No, that does not mean I think he should not go to jail, he absolutely should, but that we should all pray for his soul as it is obviously missing something vital. And while we are st it, we should also pray for all those people that were scammed; that they may receive comfort. and hopefully somehow be made whole.

In the concommitant noise there is larger issue at hand. If we weren't going through this recession, Madoff and Sttanford would not have captured the public's attention as much as it does under the circumstances. Why have the rest of the crowd escaped this vindictive attitude? Ought Richard Grasso, Jim Cayne and their ilk not be in the grandstands? Wall Street has been exceptionally efficient in separating fools from their money for years. Face it, we have been had. Madoff and Stanford are just borne out this malaise that has gripped Wall Street for years.

Are they cheaters by nature, or nurture? Maybe both. Besides, it matters little. My bigger questions is this; how come people were so foolish as to fall for their line; "I guarentee you a ..fill in the blanks.. return..". Pardon me, but is there not an old saying, "if it seems to good to be ture, it probably is". Come on, how could ordinary and extraordinary people be so foolish as to fall for this line.

As much as the loss hurts, I would venture to say that all the people that put their money with Madoff and Stanford ought to be kicking themselves, not these two swindlers.

Next time you give your money to others, may be you should do some due diligence, instead of listenting to the latest hot tip.

We penalize cheaters like Madoff , if their crimes are larger than their abillity to hire sharp lawyers. But if it is an athlete on steroids, and they are helping our team win, and drawing big crowds, we simply give them more money. Barry Bonds brought the crowds for the Giants, and they turned a blind eye for years. Only when the athlete is too old, or too injured, do we finally hold them accountable for following the rules. When Michael Phelps finally quites winning medals, then we will finally say his drunk driving and drug use is wrong.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book "The Tipping Point" explained the phenomenom of the "environmetal contagion", and Pascal Boyer in his book titled "Religion Explained" explained the existence of the "moral code of ethics" which is innate in humans. Apparently, there is enough, peer-reviewed scientific evidence of a bilogical explanation for cheating. But I am sure that inspite and in addittion to biology, 'free will' and the 'profit motive' plays a role in a cheater's mind, keeping in mind also that there are medical and pyschiatric reasons for compromising behavior. Each situation has to be considered under it's own merits, but in marosociological sense, environment has a very strong influence on behavior. That has been proven time and time again.

Harold from Florida

This is an interesting experiment that confirms the obvious. If there is no oversight and enforcement, some people will cheat. In my estimation from my own personal experiences with upper level corporate management, about half will abuse priviledge when given the opportunity, which is nearly always due to the lack of proper oversight. The better question to ask is what prevented those who didn't cheat when others were cheating and getting away with it. Those that did cheat are simply sociopaths in action who in reality have no conscience and pretending every day to be civilized human beings. Such people will take advantage of any situation to benefit themselves without a second thought or feeling of remorse. The only time they feign remorse is when they get caught. The reason that there are laws, rulles, and enforcement is to prevent these kind of people from ruining the world as they enrich themselves. What law abiding citizens like Alan Greenspan, Congress, and the boards of many firms don't seem to get is that a high percentage of human beings behave this way. There is no way to predict who they are up front, but perhaps tests could and should be devised to detect sociopaths when they are hired. They can be rich and intelligent, like spouse abusers they are found in equal percentages in all socioeconomic classes. The difference between a rich and intelligent sociopath and a poor and unintelligent one is that one robs a bank by bamboozling the board for bonuses and stock options while running it into the ground while the other pulls out a gun and gets 30,000 at best from the tellers in the lobby. Guess which one gets the hard time in the federal pen if caught and which one is liiving on their yacht in Tahiti?

High sense of morality, ethics, conscience, and the integrity to maintain thise traits of character by unselfish choices is what makes the difference from person to person. Sadly, these qualities are rarely seen in society today, but they do exist. We just don't hear about these honest folks enough, because they are not out "tooting their horns"!

Ridiculous. Asking a question tempered their behavior? Of course! A big part of cheating is being able to get away with it! The study's conclusions are false.