Author: Mike Colagrossi / Source: Big Think
Researchers at Cornell found through new experiments that people will overlook dishonesty if it benefits them and the group they identify with.

- New studies suggest that in competitive settings, group loyalty leads to group members displaying more dishonest tendencies.
- Research at Cornell found that there is a fundamental link between dishonesty and loyalty when it comes to group think.
- Dishonesty in politics which is an ever-present and timeless aspect is most likely due to this phenomenon.
No matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on, there is bound to be someone complaining about how the other side is horrible or they’re slanderous liars. This vitriol and heart felt damnation for the other team is nothing new. In politics we’ve always tended to group together with other like-minded individuals even in the event that it goes too far.
Recent research out of Cornell proposes that we really aren’t that adverse to lying as we proclaim to be. Especially if the lies told benefit our side or whatever group we propose to belong to.
Comedian George Carlin once quipped that, “If honesty were suddenly introduced to politics, it would throw everything off — the whole system would collapse.”
Carlin said this during the Clinton administration and as you might have guessed it, things haven’t changed much… Lies, untruth or whatever doublespeak the holier-than-thou crowd wants to fling at their opposing side need to realize one thing — they’re all liars to some degree.
Merits of the dishonesty study

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