The impact of mindfulness and perceived importance of peer reporting on students’ response to peers’ academic dishonesty

Abstract

Drawing from existing knowledge of ethical decision-making and academic dishonesty, this study investigates factors that influence students’ decision to report the academic misconduct of their peers (i.e. peer reporting). The core of the proposed conceptual model consists of the succession of three steps, linking ethical recognition, ethical judgment and ethical intent related to peer reporting. We introduce mindfulness as an antecedent of ethical recognition of peer reporting. We also include perceived importance of peer reporting as a predictor of all three steps. Data were collected from business school students through a survey design. The model was tested with structural equation modelling, with the results providing support for the hypotheses.