Deception                                                                November 2004

When is deception good? And when is it bad? In sports and war we expect deception--at least within certain bounds. In these arenas, we applaud deceptive acts that succeed. In private life we also engage in considerable deception--most of which is probably not so good. Consider infidelity. The deception that takes place when a spouse cheats on the other is endless until that moment when it all comes crashing down.

Perhaps the most interesting story about deception reported in a long time is a fellow, an engineer, who would search the Internet for hotels near where he was traveling for business. Once he found one to his liking, he would search for a prominent business nearby. Here's the hook--once he identified a nearby business he called the hotel and asked if they had a special rate for that company. Allah! He invariably got the discounted rate. The hotel clerk rarely asked him to provide evidence that he was a legitimate employee of the nearby business.

Did our engineer friend think he was doing something illegal? No. Did he think he was doing something unethical? Probably not. Rather, he was simply being clever and entrepreneurial. After all, he mused, hotels gouge businessmen every day by charging high rates.

Deception is a tricky business. Do you imagine that one who engages in deception like that reported here is a pretty honest person nonetheless? Or, is this behavior likely to be indicative of how our engineer friend goes about the rest of his professional and personal life?

Hurry, hurry -- get the deceiver rate, if you can live with yourself.

Source: New York Times, August 10, 2004:C7