Analyzing Ted Talk Buggy Moral Code

TED Talk: Buggy Moral Code "How much can I get away with without being hit by the consequences?" (Ariely, 2009) A deep discussion ensued when I broached this topic with my peers, as individuals justify cheating depending on the context. If our type of person does a particular thing, we would also tend to engage in it. Here's where the concept of morality becomes effective. Ariely associates this with cheating on God's divine law (the Ten Commandments).

The moment one starts taking morals into consideration, one will become more unwilling to cheat. A student will definitely tend to cheat less if his/her professor establishes high academic integrity standards, as cheating breaks down his/her fudge factor. There will not be much room to justify why one cheats. On the whole, cheating consistently on smaller projects will ultimately build up till one has no qualms about cheating on examinations and other larger tasks (Yousif, 2013).

Ariely states that one has several intuitions in life -- but it is a fact that several of these will be incorrect. The issue is about whether they will be tested or not. The challenge with doing so was my main experience when I returned to speak with the nurses. If one considers all of one's intuitions, believing them to be mistaken is rather difficult. One thinks one's instincts are correct -- agreeing to conduct a tough experiment in order to test the correctness of one's intuition is extremely difficult.

However, sadly, all of us are perpetually facing the very same situation. One has highly strong instincts with regard to several things -- one's personal abilities, the way the economy functions, what salaries school teachers ought to receive, etc. However, one cannot improve unless one begins questioning and testing these instincts (Ariely, 2009). What I'm referring to here is the instinct to maintain one's usual sense of freedom, control and individuality.

This surfaces when one really needs to, or could benefit from, sticking to the wisdom or guidance provided by some tradition or individual. Following involves banking on, trusting, obeying, having confidence in, etc. And this isn't solely about sticking to something. Rather, it deals with a challenging circumstance that one simply cannot ease one's way through.

The circumstance is of an unknown, indeterminate, uncomfortable nature (something that doesn't have a certain, formulaic outcome, whether bad or good), a rare situation or one that an individual avoids and, unconsciously, doesn't acquire the ability to tackle it, a situation revolving around growth, doing a task in a different or better way (Dokodemo, 2011). One's instincts keep one from trying to comprehend why one is, or acts, or thinks, in a certain way. People desire to maintain their common sense and normalcy in life.

Of course, a number of things do not essentially seem sensible, and will be illogical and absurd. One has simply been informed that's the way it is and has been made to accept and view things in particular ways. Things are outside our control and hence why spend time thinking about them, since they only drive home more thoroughly the fact that we are really powerless? Accordingly, with respect to these matters, one feels they are too unnecessary, bothersome, inconvenient, and wasteful.

However, the potential advantages from taking into account one's normalcy will be from discovering how we are constrained and hold back despite not needing to. One may also discover that trying "other," unusual things isn't really all that strange, frightening, irrational, and inconvenient (Dokodemo, 2011). It is also one's instinct to make excuses for supporting why one doesn't like seemingly disagreeable things.

In case of the things familiar to one, which one accepts in one's mind, heart, identity and lifestyle, an amicable status quo is maintained, through the knowledge that such things are logical, good, and natural. People are clever and are able to come up with excuses for what they constantly do despite no reason being cited thus far to account for them. Man can explore and take several possibilities into consideration. In other words, one can wonder if a particular thing is.