Are we in an honesty crisis? (with Christian B. Miller)
About this episode
The episode explores the nature of dishonesty and its relationship with human behavior, technology, and morality.
Read the full transcript here. Is dishonesty best understood as a permanent feature of human nature or as a condition that worsens when incentives and tools change? When new technologies make cheating easier and detection harder, do they merely reveal existing character or actively reshape it? How much of moral behavior depends less on values than on friction, surveillance, and the perceived odds of getting caught? Is the deepest threat of AI enabled cheating that people deceive more, or that they stop believing sincerity can be known at all? If most people are not chronic liars, why do so many people still cheat when the opportunity is clean and the cost is low? Do people mainly avoid dishonesty because they are virtuous, or because they want to preserve a workable image of themselves as virtuous? Why do so many moral failures seem to stop at the point where self justification breaks down? If people cheat only a little, is that evidence of conscience or merely evidence of strategic moderation? Why do reminders of honor, vows, and identity sometimes reduce cheating even when enforcement is absent? Does honesty depend less on abstract principle than on whether a situation…
People in this episode
Host: Spencer Greenberg
Guest: Christian B. Miller
Topics covered
- honesty
- dishonesty
- morality
- AI
- cheating
- self-conception
Keywords
- honesty crisis
- dishonesty
- moral behavior
- AI cheating
- self-justification
- temptation
- deception
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