Ethical Antecedents of Cheating Intentions: Evidence of Mediation

Abstract

Although the pedagogy literature indicates significant relationships between cheating intentions and both personal and situational factors, no published research has examined the joint effect of personal moral philosophy and perceived moral intensity components on students' cheating intentions. Hence, a structural equation model that relates magnitude of consequences, relativism, and idealism to willingness to cheat, is developed and tested. Using data from undergraduate business students, the empirical results provide insight into these relationships and evidence of mediation for magnitude of consequences on idealism and students' cheating intentions. Implications for educators are offered.

Determinants of academic cheating behavior: The future for accountancy in Ireland

“…This would suggest that, in the context of academic cheating, being an idealist is more desirable than being a relativist. These findings confirm those reported by Sierra and Hyman (2008) who suggested that idealism among students is to be encouraged and fostered as a bulwark to cheating behavior in the classroom. To this end, they recommended that "instructors should try to minimize ethical relativism among students" (p.62) and promote idealism.…”

“…In a later study, again by Barnett et al (1996), idealism was found to have a stronger impact than relativism on business studies students' intention to report cheating behavior. In more recent work, Sierra and Hyman (2008) also found evidence to suggest that high levels of idealism are associated with efforts to minimize cheating intentions.…”

Who Leads and Who Lags? A Comparison of Cheating Attitudes and Behaviors Among Leadership and Business Students

“…These multiple definitions vary from encompassing a few to multiple forms of academic deviance (Chapman, Davis, Toy, & Wright, 2004;Hayes & Introna, 2005;Kisamore, Stone, & Jawahar, 2007;Pavela, 1997;Sierra & Hyman, 2008).…”

Volunteers Versus Non-Volunteers—Which Group Cheats More, and Holds More lax Attitudes About Cheating?

“…These multiple definitions vary in breadth from including a few to including multiple forms of academic deviance in them (Chapman et al 2004;Hayes and Introna 2005;Kisamore et al 2007;Pavela 1997;Sierra and Hyman 2008).…”