Measuring business students' attitudes, perceptions, and tendencies about cheating in Central Europe and the United States of America

Abstract

A comparative study was conducted to determine the attitudes, perceptions, and tendencies of U.S. and Central European business college students toward academic cheating. The study also compared U.S. and Central European male and female business college students. Statistically significant differences exist between U.S. and Central European business college students on what constitutes a cheating situation and how often they engaged in such cheating behaviors. The objectives were to determine if there is a difference in (a) the percentage of students who cheat on examinations, (b) the knowledge of others who have cheated on examinations, (c) the beliefs about what constituents a cheating situation, (d) the perceptions that cheating on examinations is wrong, and (e) the attitudes about the instructor's responsibility on reducing cheating incidents. The population consisted of 1337 undergraduate business college students from the U.S. and Central Europe. ANOVAs were used for analysis on two independent variables each with two levels: regions (U.S. and Central Europe) and gender (male and female). None of the ANOVAs revealed any significant interaction effects between region and gender among the dependent variables, and only one variable had significant main effects on gender Estimation of percentage cheating on examinations. Five significant main effects, however, were found on region. Central European business college students engaged in higher levels of examination cheating than their counterparts in the U.S. Central European business college students felt that when students used another student's examination from a previous course to prepare for an upcoming examination they were cheating. U.S. business college students felt that it was not a form of cheating. Central European and U.S. business college students were indecisive about the instructor's ability to reduce cheating. More male business college students than female students have cheated on papers and examinations. This study adds to the limited cross-national research looking at cheating attitudes, perceptions, and tendencies. It will assist in generating further global research comparing cheating behavior among countries.