Does the Type of Cheating Influence Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Cheating?

There has been a plethora of studies outlying the various factors which may affect undergraduate student cheating, generally focusing on individual, situational and deterrent factors. But beyond these factors, does the type of cheating affect students’ perceptions of cheating? We found that there were differences in regards to gradable cheating such as cheating on homework, tests and papers versus non-gradable cheating such as illegally downloading software/music from the Internet or photocopying materials which violate the university’s academic integrity policy. Gender, discussion of ethical issues in class and enforcement of cheating reduces the acceptance of cheating across types of cheating. Less time spent on the Internet reduces the acceptance of only non-gradable cheating and the type of institution and knowing the consequences of cheating reduces the acceptance of only gradable cheating.     

Why is Cheating Wrong?

Since cheating is obviously wrong, arguments against it (it provides an unfair advantage, it hinders learning) need only be mentioned in passing. But the argument of unfair advantage absurdly takes education to be essentially a race of all against all; moreover, it ignores that many cases of unfair (dis)advantages are widely accepted. On the other hand, the fact that cheating can hamper learning does not mean that punishing cheating will necessarily favour learning, so that this argument does not obviously justify sanctioning cheaters.     

Beliefs About the Outcomes of Extramarital Sexual Relationships as a Function of the Gender of the “Cheating Spouse”

A person perception experiment was conducted toexamine people's beliefs about the outcome of anextramarital sexual relationship involving ahypothetical single friend and a married person. Twohundred and eleven undergraduate students (80 males and129 females; most of whom were Caucasian) were theparticipants in the experiment. The married person inthe vignette was presented as either a man or a woman (and always the opposite gender of the singlefriend) and as having low or high investments in themarriage (as indicated by number of children and yearsmarried). Results indicated that the participants' perceptions of the outcome of this type ofextramarital relationship depended on the gender of themarried person/single friend. Participants were morelikely to believe that the married person loved the extramarital partner, was committed to theextramarital relationship, and would marry theextramarital partner, if the married person was a womanrather than a man. The investment manipulations had noeffect on participants' perceptions of therelationship. The results were discussed as they relateto other beliefs about male vs. femalesexuality.     

The “Epidemic” of Cheating Depends on Its Definition: A Critique of Inferring the Moral Quality of “Cheating in Any Form”

The incidence and moral implications of cheating depend on how it is defined and measured. Research that defines and operationalizes cheating as an inventory of acts, that is, “cheating in any form,” has often fueled concern that cheating is reaching “epidemic proportions.” Such inventory measures appear, however, to conflate moral and administrative conceptions of the problem. Inasmuch as the immorality of behavior is a function of moral judgment, academic misconduct is immoral only when it is intentional, and the greatest moral weight should be ascribed to violations that students judge to be the most “serious.”     

Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Academic Cheating Research–Cross-Cultural Comparison

The study is an intercultural comparison of the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior (original and modified versions) to predict students’ intentions for academic cheating. The sample included university students from 7 countries: Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Turkey, Switzerland, United States, and New Zealand. Across countries, results show that attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and moral obligation predict students’ intentions to engage in academic dishonesty in the form of cheating. The extended modified version of the theory of planned behavior emerged as the best explanatory model predicting intentions to cheat. Significant cross-cultural differences were found and discussed.     

A Cross-Country Evaluation of Cheating in Academia—A Comparison of Data from the US and the Czech Republic

In this study, we examine differences in cheating behaviors in higher education between two countries, namely the United States and the Czech Republic, which differ in many social, cultural and political aspects. We compare a recent (2011) Czech Republic survey of 291 students to that of 268 students in the US (Klein et al., 2007). For all items surveyed, CR students showed a higher propensity to engage in cheating. Additionally, we found more forms of serious cheating present in the Czech sample. In all cases, the differences between the US and Czech samples were statistically significant.     

#Respect: Applying Anderson’s Code of the Street to the Online Context

Anderson’s work on street codes has become a seminal piece in cultural criminology. Today, it is frequently argued that street-oriented cultural beliefs are strongly linked to criminal offending. While numerous studies have found support for this link, research has yet to examine this relationship as it applies to Internet-based criminal behaviors. The current study attempts to fill this gap by examining both the predictors and effect of similar cultural beliefs in the online context. Results indicate that while controlling for more commonly examined predictors of crime, individuals who adhere to street-oriented beliefs in an online context are more likely to commit cybercrime.     

Do Online Comments Influence the Public's Attitudes Toward an Organization? Effects of Online Comments Based on Individuals’ Prior Attitudes

The authors investigated the effects of reading different types of online comments about a company on people's attitude change based on individual's prior attitude toward the company. Based on Social Judgment Theory, several hypotheses were tested. The results showed that the effects of online comments interact with individuals’ prior attitudes toward a corporation. People with a strong negative attitude toward a corporation were less influenced by other's online comments than people with a neutral attitude in general. However, people with a prior negative attitude were more affected by refutational two-sided comments than one-sided comments. The results suggest that the effects of user generated content should be studied in a holistic manner, not only by investigating the effects of online content itself, but also by examining how others’ responses to the content shape or change individuals’ attitudes based on their prior attitudes.     

Sanding the Wheels of Growth: Cheating by Economics and Business Students and ‘Real World’ Corruption

The relation between academic integrity and real world corruption is more often presumed than proven. Based on a sample of 7,602 students from 21 countries, it was found that academic cheating in the past is a predictor of the countries’ current level of corruption. This reproducibility and persistence over time of dishonest behaviors highlights the danger of disregarding students cheating at university.     

Assessing the Connection between Students’ Justice Experience and Attitudes Toward Academic Cheating in Higher Education New Learning Environments

The present study is aimed at comprehensively assess tendency to neutralize (justify) academic cheating as a function of individual experience of teachers’ just behavior and new learning environments (NLE), while considering the Belief in a Just World (BJW) as a personal resource that has the potential to enhance those experiences. Data were collected from a sample of 193 second-year undergraduate college students. Path analysis main results showed that students who evaluated their teachers’ behavior toward them personally as just, held more positive evaluation of the learning environment, and were less inclined toward academic cheating neutralization. Personal BJW was partly associated with the perceived NLE, this connection was primarily mediated by the experience of teacher justice. Moreover, students’ evaluation of their teachers’ just behavior was a stronger negative predictor of academic cheating neutralization than perceived forms of NLE. Interpretation of these results, applications and implications for future research are discussed.     

Challenges Since Wikipedia: The Availability of Rorschach Information Online and Internet Users’ Reactions to Online Media Coverage of the Rorschach–Wikipedia Debate

We conducted 2 studies to assess the availability of Rorschach information online and Internet users’ attitudes since the inkblots were published on Wikipedia. In the first study, the authors conducted 2 Google searches for Web sites containing Rorschach-related information. The top 88 results were classified by level of threat to test security; 19% posed a direct threat. The authors also found Web sites authored by psychologists that divulged sensitive Rorschach information. In the second study, 588 comments to online news stories covering the Rorschach–Wikipedia debate were coded as expressing favorable or unfavorable opinions regarding the field of psychology, psychologists, and the Rorschach. Eight percent of comments described unfavorable opinions toward psychology, 15% contained unfavorable opinions toward psychologists, and 35% portrayed unfavorable opinions of the Rorschach. Common themes and popular misconceptions of the Rorschach contained in these comments are described. Implications and recommendations for practice are discussed. Limitations, including the second study's narrow sample and self-selection bias, are also detailed.     

Influences on Students’ Decisions to Report Cheating: A Laboratory Experiment

We use a controlled laboratory experiment design to test rational choice theory on student whistleblowing. We examine reporting costs by comparing actual reporting behavior under anonymous and non-anonymous reporting channels. Reporting benefits are explored by considering the influence on reporting of group versus individual reward systems. We find that the type of reporting channel does not significantly influence student reporting behavior. Rewarding students based on group test scores results in significantly higher reporting rates compared to a system rewarding students based on individual test scores. Our laboratory research design allows for the measurement of actual reporting. The high reporting rates in this study emphasize the importance of clearly stating what is considered to be unethical behavior and directly asking students about their ethical environment.     

University Students’ Perceptions of Academic Cheating: Triangulating Quantitative and Qualitative Findings

Using a parallel mixed-methods design, the current study examined university students’ perceptions of academic cheating through collecting and analyzing both the quantitative and qualitative data. Our quantitative findings corroborate previous research that male students have engaged more in academic cheating than females based on students’ self-reports, and that undergraduate students are less willing to discuss issues on academic cheating as compared with their graduate counterparts. Five themes emerged from the thematic analysis of the qualitative data: (1) flexible definitions for cheating, (2) environmental promotion of cheating, (3) the moral transgression of cheating, (4) cheating as an ambiguous justification, and (5) cheating as a conscious decision making process. The mixed-methods findings indicate that there is no relationship between students’ gender or classification and their endorsements of the qualitative themes. However, non-White students are more likely to endorse the theme “cheating as an ambiguous justification.” Implications for reducing and preventing academic cheating at the university level are discussed.     

Safety in Online Research With Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence: What About the Children?

The significant co-occurrence between men’s violence against female partners and child abuse and neglect is well documented. It is less clear how child safety should be managed in family violence research with their mothers. This issue is salient to isafe, a New Zealand–based Internet intervention study testing improvement in safety decisions and mental health outcomes for women experiencing intimate partner violence. This article discusses the legislative, professional, and ethical considerations that contribute to the development of the child safety protocols and discusses the development of the isafe protocol. Hypothetical scenarios of the application of the isafe protocol are used to illuminate the issues and provide a basis for future discussion.     

Online disinhibition: heightened potential for professional conduct issues among clergy in the Church of England?

This article identifies the potential of online social networking encounters to heighten the risk of professional conduct issues among clergy in the Church of England. It first considers the difficulties in establishing what constitutes inappropriate conduct for clergy working in complex twenty-first century contexts, and then goes on to suggest that the online disinhibition effect might form a significant factor in problematic online encounters, drawing on the work of psychologist John Suler, and other previous research. It then considers the question of how online identity might mesh or jar with embodied identity for clergy, and concludes that awareness of the online disinhibition effect coupled with conscious integration of online involvements into their broader support networks, rather than compartmentalising them, form useful ways for clergy to undermine toxic online disinhibition.     

What Contributes to College Students’ Cheating? A Study of Individual Factors

To better understand the multiple individual factors that contribute to college cheating, we undertook a multivariate analysis of a national sample of 2,503 college students. Our findings indicated that demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, socioeconomic status, and year in college), character qualities (e.g., lack of self-control, others-oriented life purpose), college experience (e.g., academic preparation, extracurricular activities involvement, and working), and student perceptions and attitudes (e.g., attitude toward academic cheating, perception of faculty’s actions against cheating and cheating environment) are all significantly associated with academic cheating.     

A Model of Online Protection to Reduce Children’s Online Risk Exposure: Empirical Evidence From Asia

Children are surrounded by a variety of digital media and are exposed to potential risks that come with such easy accessibility. Learning how to be safe online is an important consideration for both children and their caregivers. The present study proposes an integrated model of online safety based on constructs from protection motivation theory and the health belief model, namely perceived severity of (and susceptibility to) risk, online self-efficacy, online privacy concern, and digital literacy. The study comprised a survey conducted among 420 schoolchildren aged 9–16 years. Using partial least squares-structural equation modelling, the results illustrated the presence of a negative effect of ‘perceived severity of online risk’ toward online risks, whereas the effect of ‘digital literacy’ was found to be positive. Children whose perception of online risks was more severe were less exposed to online risks if they had higher ‘online privacy concerns’ than the children with higher ‘digital literacy’ who are more exposed to online risk. Results of the study show that engaging in safe online behaviour requires children to have a high perception regarding severity of online risks as well as knowledge of online privacy concerns. Online risks and opportunities occur in parallel. Consequently, the factors that increase or decrease risk may also increase or decrease the benefits.     

Perpetuating Gender Inequality via the Internet? An Analysis of Women’s Presence in Spanish Online Newspapers

This study examines women’s representation in Spanish national online newspapers. For this purpose, we developed an automatic content analysis method to analyze an extensive sample of 34,235 news articles gathered from March to May 2006. Our general objective was to investigate possible gender bias in Spanish online news. To do so we focused on three journalistic routines, one at the individual level of the reporter (gender) and two at the media routine level (sections, publication day, and article length). The results of the estimated multivariate models revealed that women are still linked to traditionally “female” sections, such as people, society, and culture. Analysis of article length and publication day showed that women appear more frequently in shorter news items and in the Sunday news, which we interpreted as indicators of male association with newsworthiness. We also found differences in gender reporting since female journalists tend to include more women in the news they report than their male peers. These results provide evidence that online newspapers continue to perpetuate underrepresentation, stereotyping, and discrimination of women in web news thereby reinforcing gender inequality.