Study Finds Cheaters Overestimate Academic Abilities

In four experiments detailed in the March Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that cheaters pay for the short-term benefits of higher scores with inflated expectations. Researchers found that a majority of students cheat at some point during high school, and the likelihood of cheating increases, even though most students consider it wrong. Fifty-nine percent of public and private high school students admitted to having cheated on a test, including 55 percent of honors students, the study found. Researchers suggest that students who cheat often deceive themselves into thinking they can perform well in the future without cheating. Researchers said thinking is used to justify or distance students from the act of cheating, but will often cause long-term damage to their professional and academic habits.

Harvard Business School and Duke University, 2011, http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/03/02/1010658108.full.pdf+html