It's The Students, Stupid: How Perceptions of Student Reporting Impact Cheating

Abstract

While universities nationwide continue to revamp policies, increase penalties, and work harder to detect cheating, large numbers of students continue to admit to cheating. This paper examines student cheating in relation to students' perceptions of severity of punishment and certainty of punishment. Results indicate that increased perception of fellow students reporting cheating reduces cheating at both the extensive margin (decision to cheat) and the intensive margin (decision about how much to cheat). These results indicate that it is up to the students to police themselves.