I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but “honestly” seems to be this generation’s “literally.” I’ve heard twenty-somethings and younger use the word every second sentence, as if whoever they were speaking to doubted what they said or worse, they habitually lie.
Though honestly, I have been mulling about dishonesty lately. The New Yorker magazine recently published an article about the alleged data tampering of celebrity academics who studied, of all things, dishonesty. Gideon Lewis-Kraus narrates how Dan Ariely and Francesca Gino manipulated data to suit their desired findings, which literally brought them fame and fortune and now, notoriety.
I can see how academics can be tempted to “massage” data to achieve statistically significant results. It’s publish or perish after all. Some individuals might convince themselves that their data distortion is inconsequential. They know that done just right, their “tweaks” will be inconspicuous, totally harmless. They calculate the probability of exposure close to nil. Until their research makes them the next Ariely and Gino, under investigation by Data Colada, the professorial triumvirate that exposes fraud in peer-reviewed scientific papers.
At the start of this fall semester, I had a conversation about the use of ChatGPT by students. I shared my opinion with a colleague that if a student chooses to use AI and claim full authorship for their work, then the one they’d be cheating and hurting the most would be themselves. Especially if they get away with it. How can they take pride in their Ivy League degree if they know that they didn’t deserve it? My friend countered that for some people it’s about gaming the system. In other words, winning is of higher value than honesty.
Author and educator Irshad Manji recently posted on LinkedIn that “colleges and universities need to be offering a truly liberal education. By ‘liberal,’ I don't mean anti-conservative or even progressive. By ‘liberal,’ I mean curiosity-led; an education in which students, professors, staff and administrators embrace inquiry rather than fear inquisition.” Or rather than chase status and advancement. An education that teaches us how to be good persons and citizens.