Differences in Perceptions of Cheating Between College Students and Professors

The current research aimed to examine whether students and professors who cheated in the past would differ from those who did not cheat on their perceptions on the severity, percentage, and impact of cheating behavior. Data were collected from 434 students (61% female, 39% male, mean age: 19.78) and 42 professors (57% female, 43% male, mean years of experience: 17.29) through an on-line survey in a private Christian university. The current study focused on the severity, the impact, self-report, and the perceived percentage of cheating behavior in the survey. Furthermore, questions on the severity of cheating were categorized into three types of behaviors: cheating related to exam or plagiarism, related to homework, and ambiguous behavior). Results showed that the same percentage (38%) of students and professors self-reported cheating in the past and also indicated that overall students and professors differed on their perceptions on the severity, percentage, and impact. Two ANOVA analyses were conducted on severity and percentage of cheating. A three-way ANOVA with participant role and past cheating behavior as between-subjects factors and types of cheating behavior as a within subject factor examined the difference on severity. No significant interactions and main effect of past cheating behavior were found. However, students (M =3.69, sd= .03) and professors (M =4.17, sd= .09) were found to have significant different views on the severity of cheating behavior, F (1,476) = 24.18, p = .000. A two-way ANOVA with participant role and past cheating behavior as between-subjects factors examined the differences on the perceived percentage of cheating behavior. A significant interaction (F (1,469) = 6.45, p = .011), and two main effects of the participant role (F (1,469) = 24.78, p = .000) and past cheating behavior were significant (F (1,469) = 4.06, p = .045). Post hoc t-tests indicated that students with cheating estimated higher percentage of cheating in general (M = 56.98, sd = 25.17) than students without cheating (M= 39.75, sd= 21.23), t (429) = 7.61, p =.000. , but no significant differences were found between professors with (M = 28.53, sd = 18.06) and without cheating (M = 30.52, sd = 18.62)