Cheating is a significant problem among college students, and prior studies have shown that a majority of students either cheat or implicitly condone cheating. In order to study this issue in a particular campus setting, self-accounting surveys were performed on 161 students inquiring their opinions and experience regarding cheating, and the likelihood that they would report a cheater. This study concluded that while a majority of students believe that cheating is never justified, that same majority has participated in cheating either actively or passively, and would not be very likely to report cheating. This shows that cheating is not a problem with confused or "alternative" morality, but demonstrates a "hypocrisy gap" between student morality and student behavior.
Introduction
Cheating is a significant issue in schools today. According to a study performed by California State University, "Most students (78%) reported cheating of at least one type." (Butler et al.) Past studies have apparently been somewhat conflicted regarding the causes and incident of cheating. Missouri Western State College student Andrea Rittman found that only 16.7% of students reported cheating in college, though far more reported cheating in high school. However, her study was skewed because she only included cheating on tests, while prior studies had included other tasks such as paper-writing and projects. Considering the ease of ordering custom papers online at any number of web sites, one would be surprised if cheating on tests were the primary form of cheating in an academic setting. The California State University results included "Thirteen cheating behaviors" (Butler et al.) which no doubt accounts for its higher positive results.
Past studies on this issue have apparently shown that intelligence...
Individuals with a higher level of moral development are less likely to cheat because that sort of behavior is morally wrong." (Rittman) However, Rittman's actual results seem to indicate that it more intelligent students have less need to cheat in order to succeed, and may be less inclined to cheat regardless of morality. Her results show that honor students cheat slightly less than non-achievers, but that students who are qualified to be honor-level but choose to take regular classes instead are drastically less likely to cheat. This seems to indicate a reasonable connection between the relative difficulty of work, rather than concrete intelligence quotients, to cheating frequency. Rittman also lists fear of failure as a significant motivator for cheating.
The objective of this study is to determine what relationship, if any, exists between moral perception of cheating and tendency to cheat or fail to report cheating in others. Gender will also be considered as a possible correlative. It is hypothesized that there will not be a strong positive relationship between moral beliefs regarding cheating and the likelihood of cheating.
Method
All subjects were located on campus. Interviewers approached students randomly at various locations around campus, such as the gyms or cafeterias, and asked if they were willing to take a short, informal and confidential survey.
Students were asked four basic questions. The first asked them the degree (from "agree strongly" to "disagree strongly") to which students agreed with the statement "Cheating is sometimes okay if necessary to…
