Perceptions of Cheating: An Exploratory Study

Our rapidly-changing technological, cultural, and moral climate requires faculty dialogue on the role that academic dishonesty plays and how best to discourage and punish it. A study is presented that explores the ways and means of cheating and opinions about cheating by students at a four-year hospitality program in the Western United States. Participants responded to thirty-nine statements about cheating, ranging from perceptions of other students' behavior, the necessity to cheat, and the ways and means by which cheating occurs. Group differences between sex, continent of origin, and age are examined.