I like to ride without a ticket

Skip the line to the cinema box office, pretending to be approaching a friend. Print a price sticker at the supermarket and then add a couple more apples to the bag for free. To remain silent when the waiter made a mistake in our favor … Who can boast that they have never done this? “A third of Europeans have stolen a thing worth less than 20 euros at least once in their lives,” says Laurent Begue, director of the psychological laboratory of the Pierre Mendes University (France), referring to a survey of two thousand people aged 18 to 65 years .

I want to do like everyone else. “I didn’t want to be left behind,” admits 35-year-old Sofya, recalling her teenage antics. In those days, she, along with her friends, often jumped over turnstiles and stole small things. The reason for such actions is not so much the desire to challenge society, but the need to be like their peers, which is very strong in adolescence. “Petty theft at this age can be forced rather than desired. It is part of the norm,” explains psychologist Sid Abdellaoui. “To disobey the norm would be to be excluded from one’s social circle.” The feeling of injustice that arises when looking at how our peers cheat can also push us to break the rules. We do what they do to get rid of the unpleasant feeling that we were left in the cold: “If they do this, then why can’t I?” And when we have already moved on to action, another person again serves as an excuse for us. “When we act in a reprehensible way,” Sid Abdellaoui continues, “we turn to a tried and true psychological technique: reassure ourselves by saying that we are just like other people.”

I rebel. Petty theft and fraud at any age are accompanied by an adrenaline rush. “There is a special pleasure in doing things for which the punishing hand of the law can fall upon us,” says Laurent Beg. – It adds spice to our insipid everyday life. Perhaps in this way we also make up for the lack of meaning, because the “lover of traveling without a ticket” is often driven by a sense of protest. Let’s not forget about it. Protesting can feel like being a citizen in an unjust society.” By the way, this is the argument put forward by some fans of cheating: public transport should be free.

I’m regaining respect for myself. For those who suffer from a lack of self-esteem, breaking the taboos allows them to make up for it, albeit for a short time. “Self-control and self-respect are often linked,” explains Sid Abdellawi. “And what will bring more pleasure than to maintain self-control just when the situation can become uncontrollable?” Driving through without a ticket, stealing a couple of small things from a store, jumping over a fence despite the risk of falling or getting caught are all ways to provide yourself with an instant dose of superpower, which then cheers you up during the day, the psychologist continues. And all this with minimal cost … in every sense of the word.