It's a great point, but I don't buy the connection to actual cheating. There's dishonestly pretending to know something that you don't, which is what she's addressing. That's done to save embarrassment. But she connects that dishonesty to cheating, which is done to avoid failure.
Yes, we can categorize embarrassment as a kind of failure, but I think they are clearly separable in their effect on us. As she demonstrated, if you just say "I don't know" in conversation, you don't actually look stupid. But if you fail to write an essay, your grade will suffer.
But, back to her original point, I have noticed that the smartest people and best researchers I know are not afraid to say "I don't know" when asked a question. I've warned people who give interview talks here that their audience will be filled with very smart people who aren't scared of looking stupid. Which implies that they'll ask questions without fear of asking a "too obvious" question, which in turns implies they are more likely to ask fundamental, difficult to answer questions.
Yes, we can categorize embarrassment as a kind of failure, but I think they are clearly separable in their effect on us. As she demonstrated, if you just say "I don't know" in conversation, you don't actually look stupid. But if you fail to write an essay, your grade will suffer.
But, back to her original point, I have noticed that the smartest people and best researchers I know are not afraid to say "I don't know" when asked a question. I've warned people who give interview talks here that their audience will be filled with very smart people who aren't scared of looking stupid. Which implies that they'll ask questions without fear of asking a "too obvious" question, which in turns implies they are more likely to ask fundamental, difficult to answer questions.