Is it okay to cheat?

Is it okay to cheat? That's a very simple question, but what does the term "okay" mean exactly? For the purpose of this blog, the factor will be whether it is morally acceptable to cheat. Cheating is certainly one thing many of us have done at least once in our life, in a form or another. What form of cheating is generally considered acceptable? What form isn't, and why? That is what we are going to be discussing in this blog.

Whether cheating is acceptable certainly depends on how the term is defined. For example, unfaithfulness in a relationship is definitely not one of such cases. Just think, would you be happy if your significant other decides to cheat on you for someone else? Most people would respond to this question with a solid no.

The example above is not what most people will get to. Let's see the most common forms of cheating. Cheating in exams is one thing many have done, and is often considered to be acceptable to a certain degree. However, the morality of this act depends on the type of the exam. If this exam is ranked and utilizes test percentile, it definitely is not fair for those that crammed hard for it. If cheating in a test produces a negative effect towards stakeholders other than yourself, then it is certainly morally unacceptable. Say that you are from a low-income family somewhere in the world, and would like to apply to an elite university in the UK. You take an IGCSE exam, but due to the amount of cheaters, you miss A* by a few points and received an A as a final grade. Because of this, Oxford and Cambridge rejected your application. How would you feel if you fall into that situation? Bad, terrible, sad, just anything that can describe a bad mood.

This is a quizzing site, so it is well-expected that cheaters roam the website. This type of cheaters generally is not as despised as the type above as they do not cause any important problems in life. It is, however, not nice to miss the 95th percentile by a single answer due to them acing the quizzes effortlessly.

The final definition of the term is to avoid something unfortunate by luck or skill, such as cheating one's death. Like come on, there's nothing to rant about this definition.

To sum up, cheating may be morally acceptable when it doesn't involve negative effects on others but is generally discouraged. This doesn't mean that you should do it when you are the only stakeholder though. Cheating gives one an unfair advantage over others and cheaters themselves do not tend to enjoy their success as much as those that achieved their titles legitimately. Whether a person would cheat in "tolerable scenarios" is completely up to their own decision, and so is the degree of fulfillment they sense subsequently.