[firtoz]

Choosing to do a PHD means you are willing to dig into a bespoke topic.

They had no way out of their predicaments - it seems their mentor had forced them into a corner, where either they had to produce fraudulent work, or abandon their entire career.

I think there is also a lot of cultural pressure at play also. Being caught after producing fraudulent work is also an easy way to have the same effect of abandoning your whole career.

And without a fruitful result of your life's work, it would feel that you have wasted your whole life.

And in some cultures, that would mean being terribly judged by your family and friends, and worse.

So they did really think that they had no other options out and everything else was "worse than death".