Abrupt academic dishonesty: Pressure, opportunity, and deterrence

The first objective of this study was to explore whether students would be involved in abrupt academic dishonesty (AAD) at high levels of perceived pressure and low levels of perceived opportunities to cheat. We used Cusp R software to fit a cusp catastrophe model to the student cheating data. We found that students involved in AAD experienced high/low levels of perceived pressure/opportunity to cheat. The findings yield valuable insights into how the complex and nonlinear forces of perceived pressure and opportunity push students towards AAD in the classroom. The second objective was to design an original low-effort warning post (WP) in learning management systems and test whether it would reduce AAD based on the perceived psychological costs of being exposed (i.e., being reported to the Office of Student Conduct). We found that WP significantly reduced AAD, thereby contributing to an original deterrence of AAD in the classroom.