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  • Essay / The relationship between attitudes toward academic dishonesty...

    It was hypothesized that students with more tolerant attitudes toward academic dishonesty would have more tolerant attitudes toward infidelity. As expected and consistent with the findings of Estep and Olson (2011), a positive correlation between academic dishonesty and infidelity was found, supporting the idea that attitudes toward infidelity and academic dishonesty are related. This finding is important because the current study shows that 82 participants (41.4%) reported cheating in class, while 87 participants (43.9%) reported being cheated on by a partner. We are not suggesting that acceptance of attitudes toward academic dishonesty or infidelity is the cause that motivates students to engage in this behavior. Instead, we propose that future research examine whether the acceptance of attitudes toward a behavior is related to the adoption of that behavior. The results of the present study could be presented to educational institutions to establish programs that could inform students about the implications of their attitudes toward these behaviors. For example, information provided by these programs might highlight the risks or consequences of cheating in a class or on a partner. The results of the present study should be applied with caution because the investigation conducted was survey-based. First, the relationship found between attitudes toward academic dishonesty and attitudes toward infidelity does not mean that one is the cause of the other. Instead, this finding only establishes a relationship between academic dishonesty and infidelity. Additionally, the result could be the result of a different variable that is unknown to the current study, but might be better related to one of the measured variables...... middle of paper ..... . sample which was obtained in a single college. Future research could collect data from different educational institutions to obtain a more random sample size. Attitudes are another limitation of the present study because attitudes do not actually mean that a person will act in a certain behavior. However, some studies have suggested that attitudes toward certain behaviors can predict whether an individual would engage in those behaviors. Finally, as with any other survey, it is always possible that social desirability may have affected the results. That is, participants can answer questions in a way that makes them look good. This may be due to questions that are vague or too long. In conclusion, students' attitudes toward behaviors should continue to be studied to continue to understand and establish programs that would benefit them..