You might wonder what brought this on – a column on cheating? On most occasions my ideas are inspired by something I’ve seen or heard [or perhaps eaten such as celery!], but this time, it was doing sudoku. As I’ve confessed, I’m a bit of a puzzle fanatic. My puzzle books usefully provide solutions in the back which tempt a sneak peek, so I’m cheating, right? I wish I wasn’t, but technically, it’s true.
Here’s a good definition:
Breaking rules in order to obtain unfair advantages.
Includes acts of bribery, cronyism and nepotism.
The rules infringed may be explicit, or they may be from an unwritten code of conduct based on morality, ethics or custom.
Golly!
The word itself has history. Apparently there are dodgey dice called chetes; a rogue look-alike grass variety in wheat fields (cheat); and a 1600’s designer waistcoat called Chate … ‘rich and gaudy before, when all the back part is no such thing’. There’s even a card game called ‘CHEAT’. My paltry puzzle efforts rather pale in comparison, I reckon, and I’m only cheating myself after all. So that’s something, at least, although one can’t help feeling guilty.
So why? Well, we all do it, more or less. It was relief to discover that there’s likely to be a genetic component. Scientists reckon the desire to cheat might be linked to DRD4 – the rather boring name for the ‘thrill seeking’ gene which controls the release of dopamine, the ‘happy hormone’. That’s why cheating gives you a buzz. Hayley Holt, in a recent interview, described it as ‘that rush you get when you break the rules, even if they are only your own.’
My cheating history goes way back. Our resourceful mother was a whizz at rustling up home-made icecream. This was kept in aluminium trays in the vintage fridge’s freezer box and carefully scooped out with a spoon to go with our plates of stewed plums [we had a tree]. When nobody was about, it was easy to sneak a spoonful or two, but we [my brothers were in on this] had to match the previous scoop border to hide our deception. Of course, the border got bigger each time, and I’m sure mum knew what we were up to. A similar fate often befell the fruit loaf – one thin slice at a time.
Then there was ‘hide and seek’. Being ‘in’ involved shutting your eyes and counting to 100 before shouting ‘Coming, Ready or Not!’ Some sneak peeking was involved, naturally. More seriously .. those dreaded school exams. A few surreptitious ‘handwritten’ notes helped with physics formulae; after all, who in their right mind wants to memorise them?
If you are up to date with the technology you might be using ChatGPT. It’s a chatbot, a mine of information and so very useful for research. The insidious thing though is that it can bypass your learning efforts and produce all that stuff for you. I’ve never been tempted, honestly; plagiarism is a step too far, and I can assure you ‘Maree’s Musings’ are DEFINITELY all my own work!
