Academic Integrity: Behaviors, Rates, and Attitudes of Business Students toward Cheating

Abstract

A sample of 1,063 students who were enrolled in an undergraduate marketing course at a large Southeastern university was employed to examine the effects of perceived and admitted cheating behavior on four dimensions of academic integrity and to compare self-report measures of cheating with simulated behavior. Scales representing ways and means to curb cheating, moralistic attitudes toward cheating, cheating locale, and impact on students were developed and tested. Results of MANOVAs suggest that both perceived and admitted cheating behaviors affect the attitudes and opinions of students along these dimensions. A comparison of self-reports with simulated behaviors suggest that self-reports tend to underestimate current rates and that cheating rates are behavior specific. Research and educational implications of the study's results are discussed.