The Relationship Between Attitudes Towards Academic Dishonesty, Infidelity, and Normalization of Unethical Behavior

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It was hypothesized that students with more accepting attitudes towards academic dishonesty would have more accepting attitudes towards infidelity. As predicted and consistent with the findings by Estep and Olson (2011), a positive correlation between academic dishonesty and infidelity was found giving support to the idea that attitudes towards infidelity and academic dishonesty are related. This finding is important because the current study shows that 82 participants (41.4%) reported to cheating in a class, whereas 87 participants (43.9%) reported to being cheated on by a partner. We are not suggesting that accepting attitudes towards academic dishonesty or infidelity are the cause of students engaging in the actual behavior. Instead, we are proposing that future research should investigate if accepting attitudes towards a behavior relates to engaging in that behavior. Findings in the current study could be presented to educational institutions to establish programs that can inform students about the implications of their attitudes towards those behaviors. For instance, the information provided by these programs could point out the risk or consequences involved with cheating in a class or on a partner. Results in the current study need to be applied with caution because the investigation conducted was based on a survey. First, the relation found between attitudes towards academic dishonesty and attitudes towards infidelity does not mean that one causes the other. Instead, this finding only establishes a relation between both academic dishonesty and infidelity. In addition, the finding could be the result of a different variable that is unknown to the current study, but that might relate better to one of the variables being measu...

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... sample that was obtained at only one college. Future research could gather data at different educational institutions to get a more random sample size. Attitudes were another limitation to the current study because attitudes do not actually mean a person will act on a certain behavior. Although, some studies have suggested that attitudes towards certain behaviors can predict if an individual would be involved in those behaviors. Lastly, as with any other survey study there is always a possibility that social desirability might have affected the results. That is, participants might respond to questions in a way as to look good. This could be cause by vague questions or questions that are to long. In conclusion, students’ attitudes towards behaviors should continue to be investigated to continue understand, and to establish programs that would be beneficial to them.

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