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An Experimental Investigation of an Interactive Model of Academic Cheating Among Business School Students

Using an experimental design, we examined the interactive effect of situational (explicit presentations of an honor code reminder and of a realistic course warning) and individual (self-perceived cognitive ability) factors on business student cheating. Explicit presentations of both the honor code reminder and the realistic course warning led to significant reductions in academic cheating. In addition, we predicted and found a 3-way interaction indicating that students with the highest self-perceived cognitive ability engaged in the least cheating, especially when both the honor code reminder and the realistic course warning were presented at the outset of the semester. Conversely, when neither the honor code reminder nor the realistic course warning was presented, students low in self-perceived cognitive ability cheated the most. These results suggest that an academic institute's possession of an honor code reminder alone is not sufficient to substantially reduce academic cheating, and that an explicit reminder of the honor code and a realistic course warning together will produce the greatest reduction in cheating. Implications for reducing academic cheating using proactive interventions in the classroom are provided, and future research directions are discussed.

Ketersediaan