Phil speaks with Sara Dommer, assistant professor of marketing at Penn State, about her study on why people cheat on tasks with no tangible rewards – like crossword puzzles or calorie counting.

Dommer found that people cheat to boost their self-perception, a phenomenon called diagnostic self-deception – where they attribute their improved performance to ability rather than dishonesty.

Her research, published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, explores how this self-deception makes people feel smarter or healthier.

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