Everybody's Doing It

Abstract

Researchers focusing on academic dishonesty (AD) have suggested the power of peer influence in predicting cheating behaviors. Cheating has been found to occur mostly when it is perceived as normative. Students' overestimation of the extent to which their peers cheat, as well as their beliefs that cheating would not lead to consequences, has been found to reinforce AD. Primarily employing Bandura's social learning theory (SLT), the current authors present an in-depth discussion of the variables hypothesized to contribute to the factors involved in the acquisition and maintenance of cheating behaviors. The authors present the results of a 2018 study examining cheating behaviors by students attending a state-supported university in the United States (US). Students' perceptions that their peers cheated, and their belief that cheating was an acceptable means of coping with academic pressure, were significant predictors of cheating. Potential intervention strategies are discussed, as are future research directions regarding peer influences on AD.