Dishonest behaviour in online bridge tournaments during the COVID-19 pandemic
Tihana Brkljačić, Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar in Zagreb and Catholic, University of Croatia
During the COVID-19 pandemic at least 30 world-class bridge players were found cheating in online tournaments. Most of them were „self-kibitzing“ using a different device under a fake account to kibitz their own game and see all the cards. Detailed expert hand analysis and powerful statistical tools left little doubt in their guilt. Confronted with the evidence, some of them publically confessed their dishonesty.
Goal: The aim of this study was to analyse those confessions as well as most popular comments of members of one of the biggest online bridge community: Bridge Winners.
Method: We applied thematic content analysis to explore (a) explanations of cheating provided by confessors; (b) supportive messages by commentators (e.g. understanding and forgiving); (c) judging messages by commentators (e.g. blaming and accusing).
Findings: Confessors made clear that they were fully aware that they done wrong thing. They explained their behaviour by (a) their belief that others (ie their opponents) were cheating too (b) lockdown crises (eg tiredness, family issues); and (c) the fact that online cheating was so easy. The analysis of the comments showed that judging messages outnumbered supportive ones. Judging messages were also more often liked by Bridge Winners member compared to supportive messages. The findings were discussed using the theory of self-concept maintenance and Simple Model of Rational Crime (SMORC).
