Homer's Ability To Be Dishonest In The Simpsons

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In the TV show “The Simpsons” there is one episode where Homer one of the main characters, finds a way of mooching cable. Such a behavior is not approved by Lissa his daughter who thinks he might go to hell for what he is doing. One of Home’s arguments when Lissa questions his behavior is: “Lissa everyone does it”. Later on, Homer is not only mooching cable, but he also is stealing work’s tools. Lying and cheating seems to be attached to the core of humans. It seems be an ability that is unconscious learned, and as time goes they get better at it. It was found that everyone lies or cheats but just a little, such a conduct seems detrimental to society because since it is the vast majority who just lies or cheats a little that ends up …show more content…

It became a good way how some humans are able to reach some of their goals in life. The popular saying: “The end justify the means” could not explain better the way how someone use cheating and lying as way to prosper in life. Some do it in a greater way, but the majority do it just a little. Dan explains that every human has the ability to be dishonest and that everyone is dishonest to a certain degree. “Everyone has the capacity to be dishonest, and almost everybody cheats just by a little”(1). Early in life people gain the ability to discern between the good and the bad. therefore humans would be always have the choice of either lie or stick to their morals if they have it. Furthermore it has been found that one the reason why people lie is to obtain a benefit. Whether that benefit is money, a better score in test, feeding our ego. This kind of behavior does not follow the traditional pattern of human behavior. That is human do not weigh the benefit of cheating versus the cost of do it. It was found that the average citizen cheats or lies to the point when do not feel culpability for what they doing because somehow they adapt their values or morals to make it seems that it is ok to cheat but just a …show more content…

Students are given 20 math problems and they must solve as many as they can. Then they reported how many they were able to solved. Many reported they were able to solve 6, but the research show that in reality they only solved 4. This results seems to be the same regardless the culture where the experiment was run on ( Bhattachjee 4). The experiment proved that most of people lie just a little. Only a few say that they were able to solve more than six, but the vast majority reported to solved 6 problems. In other words people do not feel bad about lying to a certain degree, but the majority will not do it more than just a little. They feel that is a good middle point that allows them to lie or cheat without compromising their morals and allowing them to feel “honest” even when they lie. In a different variation of the experiment, the participants were offered tokens as a rewards instead of money. It turned out that under this conditions, people cheated twice( Dan 2). This means that people do not feel as about cheating when the award were a token because they separated the ideas in their head that at least, they were not stealing money. Humans will always adjust bad behavior one way or another. It will be always the perfect excuse to justify wrong

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