Skipping, cheating, cheating

The “Instructions for Malingerers” not only prescribes retraining for teachers in the matter of attempted deception

Just in time for the start of school after the summer holidays, all the tricks and deceptions are being pulled out. The not entirely serious "Guide to the Land of Cheating" explains to teachers and pupils, professors and students, but also bosses and employees what simulation has to do with intelligence and how to learn from it.

Extending your vacation with the help of a “white lie”?
Some of us, for whom the "serious business of life" at school, university or the office should actually start again after the long holidays, have certainly managed to get an extension with the help of a "white lie". Maybe the suitcase landed on the wrong plane, the foot was sprained, or the famous "dizzy spells" saved us a little from the daily grind.
Many a teacher, doctor or employer could publish an entire book about the imaginative excuses that are served up to them every day. And that is exactly what the pedagogue and psychologist Prof. Dr. Gisbert Roloff, the orthopedist and internist Dr. med. Andrzej Angielczyk and the psychologist Priv. Doz. Dr. Barbara Zoeke have done. In their unusual guide "Instructions for Malingerers", the focus is, without pointing fingers, on how to deceive others and yourself. On the one hand, this is an evolutionary biological fact for the purpose of survival, and on the other hand, it is a kind of intelligent parlor game with an open ending.

We are all malingerers
"What was it like when the math test was written without you? Didn't you get a certificate from your father's friend, an understanding family doctor? Did you really have a cold or did you just feel sick because you hadn't studied enough?" Everyone can ask themselves these or similar questions, because sometimes life seems to be one big test for which you couldn't really prepare. And even today, with Thomas Mann's novel about the conman and malingerer Felix Krull or Theodor Fontane's love triangle about Effi Briest, students are not only introduced to the power of language, but also to a culture of cheating and malingering, which from the beginning of life serves to avoid unpleasant situations or to gain one advantage or another.
Deception is not the privilege of cunning swindlers or fraudsters, as even six-month-old babies have mastered this art. They deceive in a completely immoral way when they want to get more attention and affection from mom and dad. And everyone has watched with amusement, whether in the supermarket or on the train, as a little brat shows up its worried parents. It is probably not down to individual genes, but the entire history of mankind seems to be built on lies and deception. Biologists and sociobiologists have long since proven that deception and camouflage are survival principles that can be found across the entire ladder of life.

Is the honest person always the stupid one?
For the authors, this is no reason to despair of humanity or even to condemn it. On the contrary: it is important to take a closer look at things. Animals with higher levels of brain development - and of course humans too - are able to react to the situation at hand by using tools, intelligence and learning. The deceptions are correspondingly varied and sophisticated. Particularly in social animals - which include humans - this means that not only the physically strong, but also the particularly clever ones know how to assert themselves and their genes. And anyone who looks at the history of human societies will quickly notice that the alpha animals no longer have to be the physically strongest; those who master all the tricks move to the top. At the level of higher brain performance, deception promotes the development of intellectual abilities - both in those who are deceived and in the deceivers.
Of course, every coin has its other side, as the experts on all-too-human matters do not hide despite the wink. The question often arises whether deception in the face of scandalous working conditions or stressful life demands is sometimes just looking for the right thing in the wrong. Or, as a recent case shows: whether a fictitious CV is not just as reprehensible as the social expectation of always wanting to be more than one is. So if you catch someone cheating again, after reading this required reading for teachers, you should ask whether the apparent intelligence could not simply be used better and more honestly.

Book tip:
Gisbert Roloff / Andrzej Angielczyk / Barbara Zoeke: Instructions for malingerers. Travel guide to the land of cheating. Mankau Verlag 2014, paperback, 12 x 19 cm, 191 pages, €9.95 (D) / €10.30 (A), ISBN 978-3-86374-153-2.

Link recommendations:
More information about the guide "Instructions for Simulants"
To the reading sample in PDF format
More about the author Prof. Dr. Gisbert Roloff
More about the author Dr. Andrzej Angielczyk
More about the author Priv. Doz. Dr. Barbara Zoecke
To the Internet forum with the authors