Ethics on an Honors College Campus: An Analysis of Attitudes and Behaviors of Honors versus Non-Honors Students

ABSTRACT Since cheating, or academic dishonesty, has appeared to increase over the years, it is important to observe the "new" forms of cheating present within higher learning institutions. Earlier studies have shown conflicting evidence regarding the deterrence rate of an honor code system in higher learning institutions. This study looked at the Honors and non-Honors students' beliefs and actions regarding the honor code, the internet, and suspect cheating behaviors. Surprisingly 81 (75%) students, both Honors and non-Honors, did not believe that the honor code prevents cheating, contrary to most literature. One other area of interest dealt with the internet and its profound effects on the availability of information. Results indicated that 102 (94.4%) students believed that printing a paper from the internet is cheating, but respondents tend not to report such incidents. Chi-square analyses were also conducted for certain variables with only two being statistically significant at the . 10 level or below. Possible explanations and limitations are discussed. ********** Cheating, or academic dishonesty, is not a new phenomenon within the educational system; whether cheating has increased over the years has become an empirical debate. Some, such as Brown and Emmett (2001), indicate that cheating is not the epidemic it appears to be while others, such as Moore (2002), tend to disagree, believing that steps need to be taken to protect the integrity of the future. While the battle over the frequency of cheating continues, the problem of defining cheating is still present. There have been hundreds of studies conducted and many discussions surrounding the elusive arena of deceitfulness on college campuses around the world; however, there needs to be a clarification of what exactly constitutes cheating (Higbee & Thomas, 2000; Thorpe, Pittenger, & Reed, 1999). Thorpe, Pittenger, & Reed (1999) found that specific categories of cheating allowed for a more comprehensive understanding of what should be considered cheating behavior. It is, therefore, very important to have a clear understanding of what constitutes cheating so that administrators and faculty will be able to communicate clearly to students what cheating is at a particular institution. In regard to preventing academic dishonesty, some institutions have implemented an honor code, but it is naive to think that having an honor code makes an institution completely immune to the dishonest student. McCabe & Trevino (1993) found that institutions with an honor code have students that do not self-report cheating as often as non-honor code institutions. It should be noted that there were outliers in this study in which there were non-honor code institutions whose students reported fewer occurrences of cheating than honor code institutions. Other studies have found that honor code institutions report lower incidents of cheating and, therefore, conclude that having an honor code is useful and effective in deterring academic dishonesty (May & Loyd, 1993; McCabe & Pavela, 2000; McCabe, Trevino, & Butterfield, 2002). Meanwhile, McCabe, Trevino, & Butterfield (1999) found that a number of students do not think that having an honor code at their institution dissuades cheaters. Overall the researchers concluded that a community atmosphere characteristic of honor code institutions is an effective tool in deterring cheaters. Despite all the research supporting the effectiveness of an honor code, some studies have found the honor code to be ineffective as a deterrent in higher learning institutions (Gardner, Roper, Gonzalez, & Simpson, 1988; Jendrek, 1992). In cases where the code requires the student to turn in another student (i.e., the students are responsible for reporting the bulk of code violations), Jendrek (1992) discovered that many students will not turn in their fellow students. Instead, the students try to work the problem out one-on-one or in some other arrangement that does not involve the formalities required by the code. …