"I trust you"

Okay, I'm working through the Science of Well-Being class from Yale. Week three's lecture discusses Annoying Feature #2, which is that our minds do not think in absolutes, they think in social comparisons. Tragically for us, those comparisons are whatever screams the loudest or we are the most exposed to. So, watch a lot of television featuring old rich f---s and you'll start being depressed because you're not nearly as rich. Our minds ignore that many of said people may have inherited their wealth or won some lottery, and yes, a good IPO is a lottery win, many many businesses fail or have shit business models (looking at you, Twitter).

In the lecture, Dr. Santos describes a Burleigh and Meegan study where the professors offered to raise grades by a half percent. Scores were rounded up, so if your grade after adding the half percent (really .567%) was above something.5, you could get as much as a full point increase in your grade. No one's grades were decreased, but only those on the cusp of the next grade would benefit. Turns out, 41% of the class rejected the proposal. In the upper half of the class, 52% of the top half of the class rejected the idea. The professors ascribed the difference to social comparisons: those at the top risk those lower than them becoming better, hello social comparison, and are willing to screw themselves over so as not to help those lower than themselves.

While not quite the same, I had a similar experience in high school. There is no way I'm going to recall the teacher's name, but the class was some history or social studies class. He had handed out a test, then went up to the front and wrote, "I trust you." on the blackboard. He then turned around, looked out across the room, walked to the back of the room, and left. The class was somewhat stunned. I turned back to the test and kept going. It wasn't a final, more like a quiz, and, if I recall even somewhat correctly, I finished it quickly.

The teacher returned twenty minutes later or so, and asked if everyone was done. Everyone was done. He asked us to turn over the test sheets and answer one question, "Did you witness anyone cheating when I was gone?"

Turns out, when he was gone, after about a minute, the whole room exploded into loud stage whispers, questions and answers flying everywhere, pretty much over half the class cheating on the test. Not only was it impossible not to cheat indirectly, it was impossible not to know someone else was cheating. Amusingly enough, some of the answers called across the room were wrong. I didn't correct anyone.

So, here we are, most of the class had cheated, and the teacher was asking us if we had.

I wrote "Yes." on my sheet, turned it back over, and handed it up to the front.

Once all the papers were collected, the teacher held the pile in his hands, and said, "If all of these papers say 'No,' you all will receive a 100 on this test." The class bell rang, and we all left.

I asked the teacher later what the outcome of the test was for the class. I had received a 100 on the test, so I couldn't tell what happened. Turns out, the whole rest of the class did not receive 100s. I was unsurprised by that. What I was surprised by, however, was the revelation from the teacher that only a few people reported witnessing cheating in the class. I laughed, and relayed what I had seen. I kinda wonder if he already knew, if he had been watching the class through the window or door. He was unsurprised.

I wonder now if I had been unwilling to lie for the 100 because I was confident I had earned a 100, or if I wanted to screw over everyone else for cheating. I didn't know about the offer for a 100% on the test before the question was asked, but the teacher was known to be clever. I'd like to believe I'd vote for the 0.567% grade increase, even if I didn't benefit, but really, I don't know.