Acceptance Of Cheating Research Articles

Decisional trade-offs towards doping and their association with moral attitudes and health risk perceptions: A mixed methods study

ABSTRACT The objective of the present research was to examine doping-related decisional trade-offs, and their relationship with health risk perceptions towards doping and moral attitudes in sport. A mixed methods sequential-explanatory design was used. In Study 1,249, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) athletes from 16 countries completed anonymous online questionnaires on decisional trade-offs related to doping, health risk beliefs towards doping, moral attitudes in sport, and socio-demographic variables. The results showed that almost 1 in 10 athletes would trade their life for sporting success, independently of the moral implications of their choice. When mortal threat was absent, 31.5% of the athletes would trade morality for sporting success. Decisional trade-off choices differentiated scores in moral attitudes, such as acceptance of cheating and keeping winning in proportion. In Study 2, 11 British competitive MMA athletes were interviewed about decisional trade-offs involving moral violations or mortal threats. Thematic analysis corroborated the Study 1 findings, with most athletes dismissing the doping choice involving a mortal threat but endorsing the one where the mortal threat was absent. Anti-doping education in MMA athletes should target the decision-making process underlying doping, with an emphasis on moral values and the adverse health risk effects of doping.

Modulatory role of sport factors on amateur and competitive athletes’ aggressive and antisocial behaviors

Aggressiveness and unethical behaviors are an important problem in sports today. Understanding how to properly measure and manage an athlete's aggressive tendency is a crucial lesson to be learned within the rulesets of a sporting environment. This study aims at validating the Italian version of the Competitive Aggressiveness and Anger Scale (CAAS), specifically developed to measure aggressiveness and anger in athletes. The second aim is to investigate how aggressive and antisocial behaviors are modulated by sex, competitive level (i.e., amateur and competitive), sport contact (i.e., contact and no-contact), and sport type (i.e., team and individual). Two hundred and ninety-six athletes (mean age = 22.42 years, SD = 2.86) were asked to fill out a survey about sociodemographic variables, sport specific data, attitudes to moral decisions, past cheating behavior, and aggression. The Italian version of the CAAS presented a good fit of the data, adequate internal consistency and its construct validity was supported via convergent and discriminant validity. Both aggressiveness and anger dimensions of CAAS positively related with acceptance of cheating and gamesmanship, and past cheating behavior, while only the aggressiveness dimension of the CAAS negatively related with prosocial attitude. Competitive male athletes practicing contact sport showed the highest levels of aggressiveness, while competitive athletes practicing team sport showed the highest level of anger. This study represents the first empirical construct validity evidence of CAAS among Italian athletes and provides a deeper understanding of how athletes' aggressive tendencies and antisocial behavior differ across athlete populations.

Predicting moral attitudes and antisocial behavior in young team sport athletes: A self‐determination theory perspective

AbstractIdentifying the factors associated with prosocial and antisocial behaviors in youth sport may provide evidence to inform interventions aimed at promoting prosocial behaviors and minimizing rule transgressions in young athletes. We investigated relations among social‐contextual factors (e.g., social support), personal motivational factors (e.g., psychological need satisfaction and motivation), young athletes’ attitudes toward prosocial (e.g., keeping winning in proportion) and antisocial (e.g., acceptance of cheating and gamesmanship) behaviors, and their actual rule violations during matches in two samples of athletes. Participants in Sample 1 were young team sport athletes (N = 355) and participants in Sample 2 were young male futsal players (N = 296). Athletes in Sample 1 completed validated self‐report measures of perceived autonomy support, basic need satisfaction, and autonomous and controlled motivation from self‐determination theory, moral attitudes, and past cheating behaviors. Athletes in Sample 2 completed identical measures and two additional behavioral measures: athletes’ self‐reported number of yellow cards received during competition in the last 6 months and the number of yellow cards athletes received from referees in the subsequent 2 months from competition records. We found significant relations between psychological need satisfaction and self‐determined motivation, and athletes’ moral attitudes in both samples. These effects held when statistically controlling for past behavior. Importantly, our prospective analysis of Sample 2 indicated that attitudes toward antisocial behaviors predicted athletes’ rule violations during subsequent tournament matches. Findings indicate that promoting autonomous motivation and need satisfaction through autonomy support may foster attitudes toward prosocial behaviors, and minimize rule transgressions, in young athletes.

Sport motivation and doping in adolescent athletes.

BackgroundAlthough performance-enhancing drugs appear to be prevalent in adolescent sports, relatively little attention has been paid to why adolescent athletes decide to use these drugs. In this study, we examine doping among adolescents from a motivational perspective and explore how motivational variables, such as achievement goal orientations and the perceived self-determination of sports activities, may be related to moral attitudes, doping intentions and doping behavior in adolescents who participate in competitive sports.MethodologyThe study included 1035 adolescents participating in competitive sports from all regions of the Czech Republic (mean age = 16.3 years). The respondents completed a battery of questionnaires assessing their achievement goal orientations (task, ego), sports motivation at various levels of self-determination (intrinsic motivation, external regulation, amotivation), moral attitudes toward sport competition (acceptance of cheating, keeping winning in proportion, attitudes toward doping), doping intentions and doping behavior. A structural equation model was used to test the relations among motivational variables, attitudes, intentions and doping behavior.Principal resultsOur analyses indicated a good fit with the proposed model, which explained 59% of the variance in doping intentions and 17.6% of the variance in doping behavior. Within the model, task orientation was positively associated with intrinsic motivation and lower amotivation, whereas ego orientation was positively associated with extrinsic regulation and amotivation. Furthermore, intrinsic motivation was positively associated with keeping winning in proportion and negatively associated with acceptance of cheating and attitudes toward doping; the less self-determined forms of motivation showed opposite relationships. However, only the acceptance of cheating and attitudes toward doping were related to doping intention, which subsequently predicted doping behavior.Conclusions/SignificanceThe results provide further evidence that sports motivation represents a psychological variable that should be considered in anti-doping policies, programs, and interventions aimed at the adolescent population because motivation was linked to the doping-related attitudinal variables and also partially mediated the effect of achievement goal orientations in this regard. On the basis of these results, we may argue that the focus on intrinsic enjoyment, self-referenced criteria of success and self-improvement may be related to more negative attitudes toward doping and cheating, lower doping intentions and less frequent doping behavior, whereas the emphasis on competition, comparison with others and external motivation appear to be related to the opposite outcomes.

The impact of achievement goals on cheating in sport

ObjectiveThe purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of achievement goals on cheating in sport. DesignsWe used cross-sectional (Study 1, Study 3) and experimental (Study 2) designs. MethodIn Study 1 (N = 144) we measured athletes’ dispositional goal orientation and attitudes towards cheating. In Study 2 (N = 125) we manipulated goal involvement and measured cheating in hypothetical situations. In Study 3 (N = 60) we examined the link between goal orientations and cheating in running races. ResultsIn Study 1, acceptance of cheating was positively related to ego orientation and negatively related to task orientation. In Study 2, cheating in hypothetical sport situations was more likely for ego-involved and task-involved than control participants. In Study 3, athletes who illegitimately improved their race times to enhance their chances of winning scored higher in ego orientation and lower in task orientation than those who did not illegitimately improve their race times. ConclusionsThe findings provide evidence for the motivation-cheating relationship thereby supporting predictions of achievement goal theory in the context of sport, particularly with respect to ego goals. Our findings suggest that interventions aimed to promote fair play in sport could focus on influencing the goals of the athletes.

When and why people don’t accept cheating: self-transcendence values, social responsibility, mastery goals and attitudes towards cheating

Although self-transcendence values have received top rankings as moral values, research has yet to show how they relate to cheating. In two studies, (N = 129) and (N = 122), we analyze the indirect motivational path between self-transcendence values and acceptance of cheating. Both studies were carried out with third-year students in an international management school: Study 1 included 58 male and 65 female students (six missing values), mean age: 22.38 (SD = 1.60). The study 2 sample comprised 46 male and 73 female students, (three missing values), mean age: 22.01 (SD = 1.74). We find that adherence to self-transcendence values positively predicts a social-responsibility driven motivation to study, namely wanting to study to help improve society. This, in turn, predicts the adoption of study-related mastery-approach achievement goals, characterized by a desire to understand course material. These learning-oriented goals negatively predict the acceptance of cheating. Study 2 also reveals that exposing individuals to representations of society characterized by opposing self-enhancement values of power and achievement is sufficient to render non-significant the negative relation between self-transcendence values and acceptance of cheating. The theoretical and practical significance of understanding motivational connections between higher-order life values and context-specific acceptance of dishonest behaviors is discussed.

Attitudes to Moral Decision Making of the Student Athletes in Secondary and High School Level According to Sport Variables

The aim of this study was to assess the relation between Acceptance of Cheating, Acceptance of Gamesmanship and Keep Winning in Proportion and, education level, gender, sport experience, sport branch and sport type of the student athletes. The study group are in secondary and high schools and have done any sport to be licensed The study group included 594 student athletes (362 boys and 232 girls) with a mean age of 15.6 (Range: 11-19; SD = 2.11 years) from secondary and high schools. Attitudes to Moral Decision-Making in Youth Sport Questionnaire was used as data collection tool. Significant differences were found according to gender, sport experience, education level, sport branch and sport type. The present results demonstrated moral decision making scores are higher in girls than boys; secondary school students than high school students; noncontact sports than contact sports and inexperienced student athletes than experienced student athletes. In addition, significant differences were found according to the attitudes to moral decision making scores of the student athletes engaged in different sports branches.

Are competition and extrinsic motivation reliable predictors of academic cheating?

Previous studies suggest that extrinsic motivation and competition are reliable predictors of academic cheating. The aim of the present questionnaire study was to separate the effects of motivation- and competition-related variables on academic cheating by Hungarian high school students (N = 620, M = 264, F = 356). Structural equation modeling showed that intrinsic motivation has a negative effect, and amotivation has a positive indirect effect on self-reported academic cheating. In contrast, extrinsic motivation had no significant effect. Indirect positive influence on cheating, based on some characteristics of hypercompetition, was also found, whereas attitudes toward self-developmental competition had a mediated negative influence. Neither constructive nor destructive competitive classroom climate had a significant impact on academic dishonesty. Acceptance of cheating and guilt has significant and direct effect on self-reported cheating. In comparison with them, the effects of motivational and competition-related variables are relatively small, even negligible. These results suggest that extrinsic motivation and competition are not amongst the most reliable predictors of academic cheating behavior.

It's Wrong, But Everybody Does It: Academic Dishonesty among High School and College Students

Academic cheating has become a widespread problem among high school and college students. In this study, 490 students (ages 14 to 23) evaluated the acceptability of an act of academic dishonesty under 19 different circumstances where a person's motive for transgressing differed. Students' evaluations were related to self-reports of cheating behavior, sex, school grade, and psychological variables. Results indicated that high school and college students took motives into account when evaluating the acceptability of academic cheating. Cheating behavior was more common among those who evaluated cheating leniently, among male students, and among high schoolers. Also, acceptance of cheating and cheating behavior were negatively related to self-restraint, but positively related to tolerance of deviance. The results are discussed with reference to biological, cultural, and developmental factors.