Honesty and heroes: a positive psychology view of heroism and academic honesty

Academic honesty is under-researched in contrast to academic dishonesty. A majority of students self-report cheating in college. A low probability of punishment is reflected by few tried cases of academic misconduct. The authors argue that students who are in the minority by not engaging in academic dishonesty show considerable character strength and are examples of everyday heroes. The authors consider heroes persons who are courageous, have empathic concern for others, and have a high degree of honesty. Experiment 1 established courage, empathy, and honesty as predictors of academic honesty. Experiment 2 replicated these findings and found heroism to be predictive of students' future intent to cheat. These experiments have constructed an effective working model of heroism in the context of the academic environment.