Does Bad Company Corrupt Good Morals? Social Bonding and Academic Cheating among French and Chinese Teens

Abstract

A well-known common wisdom asserts that strong social bonds undermine delinquency. However, there is little empirical evidence to substantiate this assertion regarding adolescence academic cheating across cultures. In this study, we adopt social bonding theory and develop a theoretical model involving four social bonds (parental attachment, academic commitment, peer involvement, and moral values) and adolescence self-reported academic cheating behavior and cheating perception. Based on 913 adolescents (average age = 15.88) in France (n = 429) and China (n = 484), we show that parental attachment, academic commitment, and moral values curb academic cheating; counterintuitively, peer involvement contributes to cheating. We test our theoretical model across culture and gender, separately, using multi-group analyses. For French teens, peer involvement encourages and moral values undermine cheating; for Chinese adolescents, all four social bonds contribute to cheating, similar to the whole sample. For girls, parental attachment deters, but peer involvement enhances cheating. For boys, parental attachment is the only social bond that does not affect cheating. We treat social integration (popularity) as a mediator of the relationship between peer involvement and social bonds that construct, in turn, is related to cheating and ask: Considering popularity, who are likely to cheat? Our answers provide an interesting paradox: Popularity matters, yet popular French girls and unpopular Chinese boys are likely to cheat. Social sharing is a positive pro-social behavior in consumer behavior. However, academic cheating and rule breaking, reflecting self-serving altruism and the red sneakers effect, at a very young age may have the potential to grow into the Enron Effect later in their lives as executives in organizations. We shed new lights on both the bright and dark sides of social bonds on cheating, demonstrate bad company corrupts good morals, differently, across culture and gender, and provide practical implications to social bonding, business ethics, and cheating.

Escala de Autorrelato de Trapaça-Admissão: Evidências de Validade Fatorial e Precisão

“…Parece evidente, pois, estudar o construto trapaça acadêmica; para isso, é necessário, como primeiro passo, contar com medidas adequadas a respeito. Precisamente nessa direção têm sido realizadas pesquisas para medir e conhecer os correlatos das condutas desviantes (Giluk & Postlethwaite, 2015), tendo sido realizados esforços em diversos países, como China (Gentina, Tang, & Gu, 2015), Croácia (Đogaš, Jerončić, Marušić, & Marušić, 2014), Estados Unidos (Brown-Wrigth et al, 2013), Irlanda (Ballantine, Larres, & Mulgrew, 2014) e, inclusive, Brasil (Pimenta & Pimenta, 2015).…”

Cross‐national assessment of the effects of income level, socialization process, and social conditions on employees’ ethics

“…Therefore, a greater level of social participation will minimize self-centeredness and decrease one's tendency to resort to unscrupulous acts. Researchers (e.g., Berkman, Glass, Brissette, & Seeman, 2000;Gentina, Tang, & Gu, 2017;Marks, 1974) have argued that involvement in social undertakings and social functions will minimize the propensity of individuals to engage in unethical conduct. Social participation diminishes the negative effects of employees' income level on ethical reasoning.…”

“…Weakly integrated societies generate egoism among members, depriving individuals of the positive influences of integration that could safeguard them from undesirable factors. Inadequate attachment to society will lead to less inclination to abide by the rules and will promote unethical behavior (Bray & Del Favero, 2004;Gentina et al, 2017). Thus, higher income employees from poorly integrated society are more susceptible to unethical urges.…”

Does Adolescent Popularity Mediate Relationships between Both Theory of Mind and Love of Money and Consumer Ethics?

“…In fact, some may have started at a much younger age with something small and trivial. Inch by inch, they dig deeper and deeper into a hole of which they cannot get out (Gentina et al, ; Tang & Chen, ). For college students, discussion of ethics in a business course has no impact on making money and making ethical decisions (Tang, ).…”

“…This relationship may be more complex (Cowell, Samek, List, & Decety, ) due to significant peer influence on unethical behaviours (Gentina, Tang, & Gu, ). On the bright side, high ToM individuals focus on goal‐directed responses and planning for pro‐social behaviours (Wu & Su, ), peer acceptance (Baird & Astington, ), and low physical aggressions (Capage & Watson, ).…”