Is high religiosity linked to less cheating?; evidence from experimental data
Date
2015-05
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Abstract
This study examines the link between religiosity and academic dishonesty through experimental data. The researchers randomly divided a sample of students
into two groups and asked them to answer a simple matrix addition test. After the test, students in the first group were given the liberty to self-check their answers and were asked to report their scores. The students in the second group were told to submit their test papers, which were then checked by the researchers. In effect, the students in the first group were placed in an environment with the opportunity to cheat. After the experiment, students were asked to answer a religiosity survey that measured their level of religiosity. After which, the test scores were regressed against religiosity, the opportunity to cheat, the interaction of the two, as well as additional control variables. Results showed a significant increase in scores under the first (treated) group or those with the opportunity to cheat, holding religiosity constant, thus indicating statistical evidence of cheating via over-reporting of scores. More importantly, however, the interaction between religiosity and the treatment group dummy was significantly negative, indicating a lower tendency to cheat for those with higher religiosity scores.
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Keywords
Cheating, Religiosity, Academic dishonesty