Why would anyone cheat in the Sun Run? Vancouver Sun
Neena Cheema was stripped Wednesday of her first place medal for her age category in this year’s Sun Run. Organizers believe she’s been cheating for years.VANCOUVER SUN - People cheat all the time.If you are looking for the short answer as to why two participants cheated by taking shortcuts to win their respective age categories in the Sun Run last Sunday, that might be it.Think of the person who cuts in line at the supermarket, peeks at an opponent’s tiles in a game of Scrabble, or embezzles five bucks from their boss on an expense account.“The temptation to cheat is always present,” said Danu Stinson, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Victoria, in trying to explain what motivated two runners to take a chance on getting caught in Vancouver’s signature spring event.People are always torn between their own selfish motivations and co-operative motivations, she added. Sometimes the self motivations win out.The bizarre behaviour of the two Sun Run cheaters has some similarities to a much more famous case of cheating in sports, namely that of cyclist Lance Armstrong who was stripped of his Tour de France titles after admitting to doping.His famous interview with talk-show host Oprah Winfrey sparked a flurry of online debate about what prompts athletes to cheat in sports. One thing is clear — the liar or charlatan is almost always aware that he or she is cheating.Stinson agrees. “When people cheat, they know it.”For all its claims of promoting good character and community spirit, there is some debate about whether the win-at-all-costs world of sports is more prone to cheating than other realms. Think of it. People almost always remember the winner but rarely the second- or third-place finisher. The latter two are usually remembered only for how they fell short of the winner who, unlike them, is showered with accolades and honours.Remember the famous sports quote “winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” Whatever its origin – and that is a bit unclear – it certainly rings true.However, Stinson suspects that the world of sports is not more prone to cheating than other arenas.“These are really fundamental aspects of the human condition and we just notice the cheating more in the sports world because we all pay more attention to it.”Stinson also noted that the tendency to cheat grows once you get away with it.“You get a huge payoff,” she said. “The problem with cheating is if you do it for too long and too often, it just increases the odds that you are going to get caught and then you get punished big time.”In the case of one of the two Sun Run cheaters, namely Neena Cheema, her fellow competitors and Sun Run organizers suspect she has been cheating since 2006. She has placed in the top three in her age category almost every year since then, although one of her close competitors could find no profiles of her online and no evidence that Cheema has run any other races. She was caught this year because of video shot from the Cambie Street bridge.The other cheater in the Sun Run, Mohammed Razak, didn’t even seem to be aware that he was cheating although he admitted to taking shortcuts.Stinson said there is no way of drawing a portrait of a likely cheater based on personality traits although narcissism might play a role because it creates a tendency to value the individual above any kind of communal goals.Stinson said human beings in general are very quick reward-cost evaluators. “One of the things about cheating is it’s very high risk so the payoff if you cheat and succeed is huge,” she said. But, she added, so is the downside if you get caught.“If you cheat and you succeed and you get your big reward, then you might be more likely to cheat in other aspects of your life,” she said.“But if you get punished like these people did, I don’t know if they will ever cheat again.”© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun E-mail this ArticlePrint this ArticleShare this Article More on This Story Vancouver Sun Run competitors stripped of their medals for cheating (with video) Story Tools E-mail this ArticlePrint this Article Font:***** Image:****
Neena Cheema was stripped Wednesday of her first place medal for her age category in this year’s Sun Run. Organizers believe she’s been cheating for years. E-mail this GalleryPrint this GalleryShare this Gallery Photo Galleries »
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