Interest and Academic Cheating

This chapter examines the relationship between student interest and academic cheating. Both, personal and situational interest impact cheating. High personal interest decreases cheating. Situational factors, notably teacher effectiveness, that increase interest usually decrease cheating. However, some situational factors, notably lack of surveillance and high-stakes testing, increase cheating. This chapter examines how personal and situational factors such as student characteristics and attitudes are related to cheating. 10 personal factors (example, self-esteem, attitudes, and desire to learn) and 11 situational factors (example, teacher's knowledge, task difficulty, and pressure) that affect cheating, are identified. Another conclusion is that the content of a class matters. Some students may have strong personal interest in a topic prior to the class. Other students may develop situational interest because the information in the class is judged to be relevant or meaningfully connected to their lives. In addition, teachers often make classes more interesting by being knowledgeable, prepared, and excited about what they are teaching, which decreases cheating. Similarly, teachers who make classes engaging by using humor or demonstrating a thorough understanding of class content, and being able to relate that content to students' lives, should decrease cheating as well.