College Students are Helping Each Other Cheat in the Group Chat and Here’s Why

Abstract

ABSTRACT When students have a space of their own, unobserved by professors and administrators, where they can freely talk about their classes and share their coursework, many engage in academic dishonesty. But, as observed in the present study, cheating is not a foregone conclusion for students who decide to join an online group chat. The present study examined N = 30 GroupMe chatrooms associated with undergraduate classes at a mid-sized “Southern State University” – observing academic dishonesty how it happens, when it happens. Significant associations rooted in techniques of neutralization and general strain theory were observed for both the solicitation of academic dishonesty and responses to those solicitations. As hypothesized, greater academic dishonesty was observed for appeals to higher loyalties and denial of responsibility. While the denial of injury and condemnation of the condemners each corresponded with greater solicitation of academic dishonesty, no effects were observed for responses to solicitation. The removal of positively valued stimuli also corresponded with more academic dishonesty. However, the presentation of negatively valued stimuli and failure to achieve positively valued goals were, unexpectedly, associated with less of this kind of behavior. Implications for designing out academic dishonesty are proposed within the context of these findings.