On The Couch (with Dr. Dragon)

For those of us who fervently adhere to the concept of fair play, there is one question we ask ourselves from time to time: why do people cheat? We can speculate and answer with our own personal assumptions based on how we know and observe the accused. But perhaps we need to look deeper than just on the surface.

So why do people cheat, even in situations where there is little gain and so much to lose? If you're looking for the most basic answer out there, it's simple: because they can. But there is more beyond it than just mere capacity. Irrationality may be the rule, and not the exception, when it comes to cheating, according to scholars who have turned their attention to the mysteries of the cheating mind.

Cheating is often thought of as something that is done after cold calculation. But the new research has found that people are prone to cheat even when it is not in their best interest. Instead of carefully weighing the costs and benefits of breaking the rules, people can be heavily swayed by peer pressure, mood, their image of themselves. Sometimes, paradoxically, people even cheat out of a sense of fairness.

In a way that would seem absurd to some, this is common sense: If an opponent is illegally gaining some advantage over me, I'll want to balance things out. But what's more surprising is the way the effect extends beyond situations in which cheating confers an advantage.

Robert Kurzban, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, has found that players in a game he created are less likely to behave selfishly when they know that other players aren't behaving selfishly, even though being the only player to behave selfishly actually increases one's winnings at the game. That would suggest that most people, if they could be assured no one else was cheating, would not to cheat.


There are at least 5 psychological means of 'moral disengagement' that those who cheat in L4D2 use to justify their transgressions, both to themselves and others:

Moral Justification (describing the transgression as morally right, not wrong). "I did what I did because my team's honour was under threat. We're not ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ who lose to low-skill teams!"

Euphemistic Labeling (using language that disguises culpability). "I bent the rules," instead of "I broke the rules." Or, "I had a feeling a hunter was hiding in those bushes" instead of "I could see the hunter because I'm using a mathack."

Advantageous Comparison (comparing your actions to others' worse actions, which make yours look good). "OK OK, I used a no-spread hack but at least I don't use a blatant aimbot like that f***er on the other team!"

Displacement Of Responsibility (claiming that your action was not your choice, but that of a higher authority). "It was my team leader who told me to download that aimbot, I just do what my team leader tells me to."

Diffusion Of Responsibility (attributing the action to the whole group instead of yourself personally). "It's not just me, the whole team is using mathacks!"


We play in testing times, where rumours and accusations of cheating greet us from around the corner. And while those of us play on like good sports, it easily effects the mentality of those who treasure fair play above everything else, with their faith in the community rapidly diminishing. It's no surprise that people feel the desire to give up and I don't think anyone can blame them for it.

But if there's one thing I would say to anyone, it would be this simple fact: cheaters in L4D2 are NOT invincible. They are still very much beatable and what's incredibly sad for them is that they've got nothing to gain, but everything to lose. It's proof and vindication that fair play can prevail over cheating. They understood this even in ancient Greece:


"I would prefer even to fail with honour than to win by cheating." - Sophocles