Exploring Group Processes in Academic Collective Cheating

Zanetti, C. (Cinzia)¹, Butera, F. (Fabrizio)^1
1University of Lausanne, Zwitserland

 

Submission type

Poster only

Scheduled

Hallway, 22-07-2016, 16:00 - 17:00

Keywords

Academic collective cheating, group processes, social norms

Summary

With more than 50% of students admitting to having cheated, academic cheating is an issue with potentially disastrous consequences on learning. Although individual cheating has been widely investigated, collective cheating has only recently received proper attention. The existing findings have shown that groups do cheat, more than individuals, highlighting the existence of some collective organization in this endeavor.

Using an exploratory approach, we conducted a study aiming to reach a deeper comprehension of the group processes involved in collective cheating. 210 undergraduate students worked in dyads in a study where dyads competed in a problem-solving task. No monetary incentives were introduced. Dyads had the possibly to cheat in order to increase their group performance by declaring as completed unsolvable problems. Students had also to fill in a questionnaire including various measures on the relation between group members and their collaboration, allowing a greater comprehension of ongoing group processes. We found that 18% of groups cheated in a collective manner. Measures of group-level processes point to the importance of social norms, mainly descriptive norms, on cheating behavior and its extent. Other results and future research lines will be presented.

Auteurs