Ormskirk (UK), Sometimes when I read the newspapers, I think that going to a restaurant and leaving without paying has become an epidemic. My research on lying has taught me that the psychology behind acts of deception is often very complex.
Let me start with a confession. I was guilty of dine and dash a long time ago, even before it had a catchy name. I was in a group that hung out at a chip shop on the corner of the road in North Belfast, a poor and troubled area.I had a friend who wanted to go to the Wimpy bar in town, I told him I didn't have any money. I remember his words "Why do you need money?" He gave me the menu. “We're doing doubles,” he said, and for the next half hour he was a big shot.
Their scandalous attitude is reminiscent of a serial-married couple who recently made news after being captured on CCTV at an Italian restaurant in Swansea. He just sat there, not a care in the world.Well, not at the time, but perhaps now, having been sentenced to prison for repeat offences. He dined on T-bone steaks, a Chinese takeaway and a three-course feast at eateries around South Wales.
We can't speculate about their specific motivations but we do know that personality can play an important role in deception.
For example, my friend had a low tolerance for boredom and was a born risk-taker. He derived immense pleasure from deception which also involved some danger.This is known as Dipping Delight. He had little empathy for others and was an expert liar. There was a theatricality in his acting. He wanted me and others to admire him—behaviors that might be equated by psychologists to the dark triad of personality characteristics, non-diagnostic psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. When you can see the face of your victim And when you have friends who know what's going on, the fun of shenanigans intensifies. Shoplifting, by comparison, is typically a much more solitary activity with less immediacy in terms of reaction.Eating and traveling maximizes the excitement.
In that Belfast Wimpy, my friend and I each ate a double cheeseburger and two Cokes. I didn't know how we would pay.
When we were finished, she asked for the bill and asked me to go with her to the restroom. Last week he picked up a waitress's pad and wrote up the bill for two coffees.“You hand it in at checkout,” my friend ordered. The woman at checkout said she saw us eating burgers but denied it. "If you pay me I won't eat here, I won't feed it to my dog." He threw some coppers on her small counter for the coffee. But there are likely other powerful psychological factors at work here as well.When people feel that they are looked down upon or discriminated against, it often leads to frustration and may make them feel inclined to retaliate. However it does not have to be aimed at those directly responsible for the problem. Attacking similar but accessible individuals is psychologically beneficial, and may be more beneficial than attacking remote, abstract figures or systems.
My friend laughed about it the whole way home, but then justified it to himself: “Did you see the way the waitress looked at us when we walked in? She was thinking in her mind, these two boys are from a really rough town, I'm sure they can't eat here." She had taken her revenge.
There is also a desire to do big things in this competitive society of ours; Being someone. Conspicuous consumption of items (even food at Wimpy's) is a way to signal status and improve and strengthen feelings of status when threatened.Self-construal is an important driver of behavior in competitive societies. There may also be some satisfaction to be gained from projecting a certain false personality to people. The Italian restaurant manager later said that he could not believe such an "innocent-looking" customer could do something like this.
aftertaste
Dishonest behavior is often a kind of game. In this case the victims, the restaurant workers, are the losers.He has described how the experience reduced his trust in others. Cheating often affects the way victims think and feel about themselves, and make them less confident about their decisions. But how do cheaters feel afterward? For my new book on lying I explored how liars, including cheaters, justify their actions to make themselves feel better. Justifications follow the act but can shape subcultures as people share those justifications with others.
In 1968 sociologists Marvin Scott and Stanford Lyman identified different types of justifications used in different social contexts.These justifications include things like denying that the action will have any serious consequences (the restaurant could be harmed).
Sometimes the justification is that the behavior is in the interest of another person to whom the perpetrator owes some kind of loyalty. Perhaps, as my friend was saying as he feasted on me on a rainy Belfast Saturday afternoon, or the married couple feasting on their children before eloping. Dine and dash undoubtedly has a long history. But CCTV may have changed the game. Perhaps seeing Greedy's fall will make some people think again, and most of us will be dreaming of that expensive T-bone steak right outside the restaurant.(talk) PY
PY
Let me start with a confession. I was guilty of dine and dash a long time ago, even before it had a catchy name. I was in a group that hung out at a chip shop on the corner of the road in North Belfast, a poor and troubled area.I had a friend who wanted to go to the Wimpy bar in town, I told him I didn't have any money. I remember his words "Why do you need money?" He gave me the menu. “We're doing doubles,” he said, and for the next half hour he was a big shot.
Their scandalous attitude is reminiscent of a serial-married couple who recently made news after being captured on CCTV at an Italian restaurant in Swansea. He just sat there, not a care in the world.Well, not at the time, but perhaps now, having been sentenced to prison for repeat offences. He dined on T-bone steaks, a Chinese takeaway and a three-course feast at eateries around South Wales.
We can't speculate about their specific motivations but we do know that personality can play an important role in deception.
For example, my friend had a low tolerance for boredom and was a born risk-taker. He derived immense pleasure from deception which also involved some danger.This is known as Dipping Delight. He had little empathy for others and was an expert liar. There was a theatricality in his acting. He wanted me and others to admire him—behaviors that might be equated by psychologists to the dark triad of personality characteristics, non-diagnostic psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. When you can see the face of your victim And when you have friends who know what's going on, the fun of shenanigans intensifies. Shoplifting, by comparison, is typically a much more solitary activity with less immediacy in terms of reaction.Eating and traveling maximizes the excitement.
In that Belfast Wimpy, my friend and I each ate a double cheeseburger and two Cokes. I didn't know how we would pay.
When we were finished, she asked for the bill and asked me to go with her to the restroom. Last week he picked up a waitress's pad and wrote up the bill for two coffees.“You hand it in at checkout,” my friend ordered. The woman at checkout said she saw us eating burgers but denied it. "If you pay me I won't eat here, I won't feed it to my dog." He threw some coppers on her small counter for the coffee. But there are likely other powerful psychological factors at work here as well.When people feel that they are looked down upon or discriminated against, it often leads to frustration and may make them feel inclined to retaliate. However it does not have to be aimed at those directly responsible for the problem. Attacking similar but accessible individuals is psychologically beneficial, and may be more beneficial than attacking remote, abstract figures or systems.
My friend laughed about it the whole way home, but then justified it to himself: “Did you see the way the waitress looked at us when we walked in? She was thinking in her mind, these two boys are from a really rough town, I'm sure they can't eat here." She had taken her revenge.
There is also a desire to do big things in this competitive society of ours; Being someone. Conspicuous consumption of items (even food at Wimpy's) is a way to signal status and improve and strengthen feelings of status when threatened.Self-construal is an important driver of behavior in competitive societies. There may also be some satisfaction to be gained from projecting a certain false personality to people. The Italian restaurant manager later said that he could not believe such an "innocent-looking" customer could do something like this.
aftertaste
Dishonest behavior is often a kind of game. In this case the victims, the restaurant workers, are the losers.He has described how the experience reduced his trust in others. Cheating often affects the way victims think and feel about themselves, and make them less confident about their decisions. But how do cheaters feel afterward? For my new book on lying I explored how liars, including cheaters, justify their actions to make themselves feel better. Justifications follow the act but can shape subcultures as people share those justifications with others.
In 1968 sociologists Marvin Scott and Stanford Lyman identified different types of justifications used in different social contexts.These justifications include things like denying that the action will have any serious consequences (the restaurant could be harmed).
Sometimes the justification is that the behavior is in the interest of another person to whom the perpetrator owes some kind of loyalty. Perhaps, as my friend was saying as he feasted on me on a rainy Belfast Saturday afternoon, or the married couple feasting on their children before eloping. Dine and dash undoubtedly has a long history. But CCTV may have changed the game. Perhaps seeing Greedy's fall will make some people think again, and most of us will be dreaming of that expensive T-bone steak right outside the restaurant.(talk) PY
PY
