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I recently read an Atlantic article about how shoppers are shoplifting, by using different sorts of scams at self-checkout stations in supermarkets. In one survey, 20% of people admitted to having stolen at the self-checkout counter. One strategy – the “banana trick” – is where the customer scans a cheap item (bananas at 59 cents per pound) but puts a steak (at $15 per pound) into the bag. The “switcheroo,” which takes more effort involves peeling the sticker off of an inexpensive item and putting it over the bar code on a more expensive one.
Many of these people who admitted to scamming wouldn’t think of walking into a store, putting an item under their shirt and walking out without paying. So, why would so many people try to “beat” the self-checkout system?
I think it is our culture that has encouraged people to try to “beat the system.” Whether it is cheating on their income taxes, kicking the snack machine to get a “two-for-one,” or fooling the scanning machine, our culture has encouraged a sort of “gaming” of the system. We even see this in video games where people can find out about, or buy, a “cheat” to help them get through difficult parts of the game.
So why do people try to beat the system and engage in theft or rule-breaking?
One psychological explanation is that they rationalize their behavior. One supermarket scammer said that the stores are forcing people to do their own work of checking out groceries, so “they are charging you to work at their store.” Others rationalize by believing that the store’s markup is so high that they are “evening things out” by not paying for some items. Similarly, people rationalize cheating on their taxes by saying that “the government is already taking too much of my income.”
In another blog post I discussed the rise in incidences of cheating in schools and universities, and suggested that the same processes are at work – students are trying to “game the system.” Rationalization is also rampant, “the teacher was too dumb to take away our phones, so we figured it was ok to google the answers.”
So, if you are tempted to engage in secret scamming, what should you do? First and foremost, resist the temptation to rationalize. Instead of thinking that you are stealing from an impersonal store with high profits, engage your “moral self” and realize that wrong is wrong.
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