The reason why cheaters have such a bad memory

Cheating causes people to forget their past indiscretions and makes them more likely to cheat in the future, a new study finds.

The study was published in the journal PNAS (Kouchaki et al., 2016). Despite the optimistic belief that people would behave honestly when facing the temptation to act unethically, people often cross ethical boundaries. The study explores one possibility of why people engage in unethical behavior over time by suggesting that their memory for their past unethical actions is impaired.

We identify a consistent reduction in the clarity and vividness of people’s memory of their past unethical actions, which explains why they behave dishonestly repeatedly over time. Across nine studies using diverse sample populations and more than 2,100 participants, we find that, as compared with people who engaged in ethical behavior and those who engaged in positive or negative actions, people who acted unethically are the least likely to remember the details of their actions. That is, people experience unethical amnesia: unethical actions tend to be forgotten and, when remembered, memories of unethical behavior become less clear and vivid over time than memories of other types of behaviors. Our findings advance the science of dishonesty, memory, and decision making.

Psychologists have found that people’s memories are actually less vivid for unethical decisions they have made in the past. They call the phenomenon ‘unethical amnesia’.

In contrast, people have no problem in remembering the unethical decisions that others have made.

The study’s authors write:

“After they behave unethically, individuals’ memories of their actions become more obfuscated over time because of the psychological distress and discomfort caused by such misdeeds.

This unethical amnesia and the alleviation of such dissonance over time are followed by more dishonesty subsequently in the future.”

In one of the studies people took part in a coin-toss game where it was deliberately made easy to cheat. A couple of weeks later they were asked whether they had cheated and about a meal they had eaten the same night as the test. The results showed that 43% of people admitted cheating but their memory was very hazy. In comparison, they had much more vivid memories of what they had eaten.

A further study showed that when people were encouraged to cheat in one game, they were more likely to cheat in the future as well. However, their minds still seemed to be trying to cover up their own cheating from themselves by burying the memory.

The study’s authors conclude:

“These results are particularly important because unethical amnesia can explain why ordinary, good people repeatedly engage in unethical behaviour and also how they distance themselves from such behaviour over time.

“Our findings further demonstrate the critical role of moral self-concept as we construct and reconstruct experiences to maintain our moral self-image intact regardless of our behaviour.”

SOURCE: The journal PNAS (Kouchaki et al., 2016). http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/05/11/1523586113