The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead by by, David Callahan

“The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead”

Intro

When Professor John Doe assigned this reading assignment, I had really no idea what academic book would appeal to me. I definitely wanted to choose a book that would impact me in the long run and that I would benefit from. When I told my brother about the book, he said that he was just finishing a book called “The Cheating Culture, Why More Americans Are Doing More To Get Ahead” by, David Callahan. When he quickly explained what the book was about I knew that was the book I was going to read. I figured that this would be a good choice, because everywhere you look these days you see cheating. This book was published back in 2004 so even though it is a decade old, I do believe that many of the examples in the book are still problems, if not, even worse today than they were a decade ago. Weather it is kids in school, athletes, or the average business man. Everyone is cheating and trying to cut corners to get ahead. Nearly everyone has cheated in their life rather you would want to admit it or not. Reading this book, I was hoping to learn exactly why so many people try to cheat, and what alternatives people could take to prevent from cheating.

Review

I was really looking forward to reading this book because since high school, when reading novels were mandatory assignments, I hadn’t really sat down and read a book, let along an academic book. I was looking forward to learning and possibly using this book in a future interview. The book starts off by David Callahan addressing the national problem that we have with cheating. To discuss the cheating culture, the author brings in research findings from many disciplines such as: economics, political scienc...

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...n little things, like asking others what they got on certain questions in math class and little things like that. The main reason I do that is because sometimes I doubt myself and want reassurance from other peers. I also cheat on little things once in a while because I know that the likelihood of getting caught is small, and the punishments is not that great of a deal. Although I try not to cheat as much as possible sometimes I slip up and it just happens. Reading this book really taught me that if I am likely to cheat on something small, then in the future I am more likely to cheat on something larger and something that would have bigger consequences if caught. Also, reading this book will help me out in an interview. Many times an interview will ask if I have read any good books lately. Now I at least have one academic credible book that I can say I have read.