Trying to be a good person is important, but being good doesn’t always mean being nice. Sometimes, it helps to be clever and think outside the box, and a bit of moral flexibility can lead to better results. A collection from the ‘Unethical Life Pro Tips’ group offers some interesting advice for tackling problems in creative ways. These tips could be very effective, but they might also leave you feeling a bit guilty for using them.
1 Save the business cards of people you don’t like. If you accidentally hit a parked car, just write “sorry” on a note and leave it on the windshield.
2 If you attach a dead wasp to your hand, you can hit your boss on the back of the head and pretend you saved him.
3 Send wedding invitations to every billionaire whose address you can find. Their assistants might just send a gift without checking if they know you.
People often find ways to justify behaviors that aren’t ethical while still seeing themselves positively. They may view their actions as morally ambiguous. Social and health psychologist Juliana Breines, PhD, explains that people can interpret situations selectively. Another way to justify unethical behavior is by framing it as helping others. Individuals are more likely to deceive for personal benefit if they can view it as being selfless.
4 If you see “SSSS” on your boarding pass, just toss it and use your phone to show your boarding pass. Recently, someone found that this worked for them. After checking in online, they received a paper pass with “SSSS” written on it. They used their phone pass at TSA and avoided extra screening.
5 If your roommate won’t clean, create a fake Tinder profile that matches with them and say you’re coming over. This will get them to clean up quickly.
6 Check your building’s washer and dryer model on eBay and buy a key. This person claims they haven’t paid for laundry in years, spending only $8.00 on the key.
Also, people often feel better about their own unethical actions by judging others who do the same thing. This is known as ethical distancing, which is a form of hypocrisy. Breines mentions that this happens when a person sees a behavior as wrong and rationalizes their own actions as less harmful. They also feel safer doing this if they believe their own actions won’t be discovered.
7 Get the cheapest tickets for a sports event. Once inside, look at Ticketmaster and Stubhub for better seats that are still available and move to those.
8 Attend easy and enjoyable classes at your local community college. In Pennsylvania, these classes may cost around $300. You could save more on software than what the class costs, and you can still have a student email and ID while learning something new.
What do you think about these tips?
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Source: Bored Panda, by Justinas Keturka