Cheating

Without it and human vagaries and inconstancy

would we have all the songs about cheating

hearts, the poems raptly rummaging through

the rubbish heaps of what was once love?

Happily, thousands of tests by sociologists,

psychologists and behavioral economists

confirm that almost all people cheat.

But most don't cheat as much as they could

Using flexible reasoning and rationalization,

we manage just enough dishonesty to get

some advantage but, despite the facts,

 still maintain a positive, attractive self image.

Dishonesty has its interesting predicates.

Who knew that the probability of being  caught,

or even the expected amount ill gotten benefit,

have no effect on behavior's shaping scales?

Instead, like impressionable children, we

adjust behavior to what we see others do,

to what a culture sanctions, to small excuses,

and even to how innocent others could also benefit.