No More Excuses - Personality Traits and Academic Dishonesty in Online Courses

Abstract

Academic dishonesty is a disturbing issue in higher education that has been worsening over the years, especially with the appearance of the internet and the e-learning education. This new technology exposes students to the opportunity of using online bank exams and term papers and increases their tendency to cheat. This study investigates student academic dishonesty in the context of traditional and distance-learning courses in higher education. Data from 1,365 students enrolled in academic institutes in the U.S.A and Israel were surveyed to assess their personality and their willingness to commit various acts of academic misconduct. The findings indicate that in both countries dishonest behaviors are greater in face-to-face courses than in online courses. In addition, both American and Israeli students identified with the personality trait of Agreeableness showed a negative correlation with academic dishonesty. Furthermore, Israeli students identified with the personality traits of Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability demonstrated a negative correlation with academic dishonesty. In contrast, the personality trait of Extraversion among American students was found in a positive correlation with academic misconduct.Implications for further research are discussed.

Profiling the Interrogee: Applying the Person-Centered Approach in Investigative Interviewing Research

“…Men tell more self-oriented lies than women ( Rowatt et al, 1999 ), whereas women tell more other-oriented lies than men ( DePaulo and Bell, 1996 ). A link between the traits of the Five Factor model of personality ( Costa and McCrae, 1992 ) and deception also appears to emerge ( Buss, 1992 ; Kashy and DePaulo, 1996 ; Wiebe, 2004 ; Weiss and Feldman, 2006 ; Vrij, 2008 ; Williams et al, 2010 ; Conrads et al, 2013 ; Eshet et al, 2014 ; Michikyan et al, 2014 ; Gylfason et al, 2016 ). For example, Hart et al (2020) explored the link between personality and three different types of lies: self-serving lies (lies told to avoid consequences), altruistic lies (lies told to benefit another person), and vindicative lies (lies told to harm another person).…”

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The ethical conduct of nutrition undergraduates at a public university in Brazil

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