"Cheater!" For many children, the child's first education in honesty comes when he or she is playing a game with a friend or a sibling. One player looks away for a moment. The other player pushes his or her piece on the game board a few places ahead of the other player's token. It seems cute, until the cheating child begins to do it regularly, after getting away with this deception one too many times. Then no one wants to play the game of "Life" with the deceitful young player.

             In the real game of life, on a sporting field, the stakes are raised. A Little League player who cheats doesn't just ruin the fun for him or herself, but calls the honor and rightful win of his or her entire team into question. A college level player who engages in deception, either during the game or by taking illegal, performance enhancing drugs upsets the assumption of fairness and a level playing field for an entire league of players who wish to impress important college scouts.

             However, in some cases, even in sports, deception may be justified. A coach who tells an injured lacrosse player "you're playing like a true champion" to egg him on through a difficult game, is using a kind of motivational deception. The coach tries to make sure that the player doesn't feel additional psychological pain by thinking that the player's injury is letting the entire team down, even if in actual fact the team is playing less well than it should, as a critical component of the team's defense is not functioning at his usual level. A cheerleader shouting a motivational "you can do it" to a clearly over matched football team on the field is engaging in a kind of motivational deception as well. But should the cheerleader really shout: "Well, you're probably going to lose, but play the game anyway, because you have to," even if this statement would be more honest?.

             These motivational deceptions are for a higher good, they are not merely self-serving lies like disobeying the rules of a game.