Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Honesty is people’s most treasured virtue. Research has found that honesty is the single most important characteristic a person can have when it comes to liking them, respecting them, and understanding them. But honesty is eroding at a frightening rate in many areas of society today, as we are confronted with a number of honesty crises. These include: in education, many students are using AI to complete their writing assignments for them with little chance of being detected by their professors; in our relationships, with the easy availability of pornography, anonymous chatrooms, and infidelity websites like Ashley Madison, cheating has never been easier; in politics, social media helps with the dissemination of fake news, and polarization reduces our tendency to condemn political dishonesty if it aligns with our own views; in online spaces, the frequency of deepfakes has skyrocketed now that they are simple to make and basically untraceable; in public spaces, it is easier to become a celebrity than it has ever been in human history, and the allure of celebrity is stronger than ever too; and in religion, religious leaders are increasingly confronted by temptations to engage in sermon plagiarism, to have inappropriate emotional and sexual relationships, and to fall into the trappings of celebrity. Fortunately, there are concrete steps we can take to try to reign in at least many of these crises. The sooner we implement them, the better, as the stakes are high.</jats:p>