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“I Cheat” or “We Cheat?” The Structure and Psychological Correlates of Individual vs. Collective Examination Dishonesty

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Abstract

Examination dishonesty is a global problem that became particularly critical after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote learning. Academic research has often examined this phenomenon as only one aspect of a broader concept of academic dishonesty and as a one-dimensional construct. This article builds on existing knowledge and proposes a novel, two-factor model of examination misconduct, dividing it into individual and collective forms of dishonesty. A study conducted on a large sample of 462 Polish students confirmed the psychometric quality of the new Examination Dishonesty Intention Scale (EDIS) and the superiority of the two-factor model over the unidimensional model. In addition, we tested the psychological correlates of both types of academic dishonesty and demonstrated their divergent validity. The results suggest that EDIS can be a valuable tool for exploring the intentions of exam dishonesty and has potential for practical applications in academic integrity policy and research.

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Data Availability

Data analyzed in this study are available for review on the Open Science Framework repository, accessible at https://osf.io/jt79m/?view_only=82db0eb4c8d04b5aabf21a62a05a99b9, ensuring transparency and facilitating further research.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Professor Irene Glendinning for her insights and suggestions that contributed to the development of this paper.

Funding

The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work.

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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by MK, JE and AG. The first draft of the manuscript was written by MK. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Maciej Koscielniak.

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Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants involved in the study.

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. No funding was received for conducting this study.

Research Involving Human Participants

The research procedure used in this project was accepted by the Ethics Committee at SWPS University, Faculty of Psychology and Law in Poznan, PL (approval number: 09/P/03/2022). Key aspects included ensuring informed consent and anonymity of all participants, with attention to linguistic and cultural sensitivities in survey translations.

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Koscielniak, M., Enko, J. & Gąsiorowska, A. “I Cheat” or “We Cheat?” The Structure and Psychological Correlates of Individual vs. Collective Examination Dishonesty. J Acad Ethics 22, 71–87 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-024-09514-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10805-024-09514-x

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