Cheating

I've been battling to find time for blogging for a while now. Rather than stopping, I've decided to abbreviate my blog posts and then expand them when I find the time.

This post is a brief commentary on Lewis Hamilton and McLaren's cheating at the Australian F1 Grand Prix. Under amateur codes the ideas of fair play and fair competition are held in high esteem, although it would be naive to believe that gaining an unfair advantage and even cheating do not happen. In professional sport such practices seem much more common, even if officially frowned upon. Hamilton and McLaren's blatent lying while seeing their opponent being punished unfairly, while at the same time facing almost certain exposure, seems particularly cold-blooded and at the same time stupidly irrational.


Image from Top F1 Galleries.

Dan Ariely has some interesting ideas on the psychology and behavioural economics of cheating. See his excellent talk an this issue on video here.

Hat tip to Vaughan from Mind Hacks for pointing me to the Ariely video.