I hope someone, somewhere is finding this useful. I did. It was nice getting these thoughts recorded.

how someone can feel good about themselves after they win thru cheating

I have cheated, gotten away with it, and felt good about it. I have cheated, gotten caught, and felt bad about it. I have cheated, gotten away with it, and felt bad about it. I have cheated, gotten caught, and felt good about it.

I have lost a game when someone else cheated, and felt mad about it. I have gotten beat by a cheater, and been impressed by it.

I have lost when cheating would have let me win, and never been penalized, and regretted following the rules. I have lost, when cheating would have penalized me, and been proud that I didn’t. I have cheated, gotten caught, and been proud that I took the red card to give my team the chance to win. I have watched others cheat and accept their penalty and still lost.

There’s a ton going on. So many reasons, so many avenues, so much context. We can never truly know what’s going on in someone else’s head.

My personal drivers would be self/team/community pride, fear, and desire to be sneaky. My counters are respect for the game/other team/sport/rules/agreement/society, fear of getting caught, shame, and general lack of desire to put my success ahead of that of others.

These (and others) will have different weights from person to person. Nature and nurture both come into play.