Dishonesty was on display in a big way in 2012:

Cheating is nothing new. But the steady stream of famous faces and institutions that got caught up in it this year seems unprecedented — 2012 may well have been the Year of the Cheater.

Lance Armstrong. David Petraeus. Goldman Sachs. Harvard University. The Air Force Academy. Olympic athletes. From doping in sports to cooking the books, test-taking schemes and extramarital affairs, the list of very public examples goes on and on. And Americans hardly even seem shocked anymore. ...That "has a snowball effect," he adds. "It legitimizes further dishonest behavior." ...

The scandals of the past year illustrate a clear change in how we view misconduct. Those who study cheating say a confluence of factors has led to it becoming more pervasive and more socially acceptable: Technology makes it easier to cheat, and an increasingly competitive social environment — from grade school through college and into the workplace — makes us feel more pressure to do so. Increased exposure to cheating, either through news reports or personal knowledge, makes it seem as if everyone is doing it, say behavioral researchers. ...

"As we see things happening around us that give us a sense that other people are dishonest, it is easier for us to be dishonest as well," says Ariely, author of The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone — Especially Ourselves. ... "People have redefined what constitutes cheating in line with the technologies available now," says McCabe, co-author of Cheating in College: Why Students Do It and What Educators Can Do about It. ... And people can adjust their moral compasses to fit their unethical behavior, says Lisa Shu, a visiting assistant professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. ...

"If everyone is doing it, it's then seen as what you do, and there is no big issue of morality," says Albert Bandura, a professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University in CA. "It gets at the root of why good people are doing it and not feeling bad about it."

"A man in Chester, England fought with his estranged wife and killed her because she threatened to expose his homosexuality unless he gave her more money, something he said he could not afford to do. He hid her body on the edge of a peat bog.

Twenty-two years later when he heard that some peat diggers unearthed a skull he assumed it was hers so he confessed. Tests showed that the skull was 1,600 years old, that of a woman who died before the Romans left Britain.  The authorities have not been able to find any of the remains of his wife.  Now he faces murder charges."

"Blood flow to the skin can vary tremendously--in some areas by a factor of 150 times. This is important for the crucial temperature control of the body but also plays a role in social blushing. Blushing is a function of dramatically increased blood flow to the skin surface, most notably of the face. It is involuntary and for those so prone, it cannot be controlled. Humans are the only creatures that have this capacity."

Richard A. Swenson, MD, is a medical doctor and award winning author of several acclaimed books. He travels extensively, speaking to a variety of business, denominational and government groups on issues of faith and reason, stress, complexity, social change, and management.