A Naturalistic and Experimental Investigation of Cheating in High Schools

该奖项是NSF社会、行为和经济科学博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划的一部分。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界，工业或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF的奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。NSF致力于促进来自科学界各部门的科学家，包括来自代表性不足的群体的科学家参与其研究计划和活动;博士后期间被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决推进各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在加州大学圣地亚哥分校的Gail Heyman和Kang Lee博士的赞助下，该博士后奖学金支持一位早期职业科学家调查青少年对学术不诚实的评价和参与，以及指导他们的社会因素。青少年时期是一个重要的发展时期，解释青少年时期促进诚信的心理机制有助于培养下一代社会公民成员。本研究采用了一种新的理论方法来解释作弊：学生在特定情况下更容易作弊，他们认为作弊是可以接受的，并且这些评价是由老师和同龄人关于作弊的社会信息形成的。为了了解这些社会信息对学术作弊和诚信的内容和后果，本项目实施了一个多方法的调查，青少年的经验周围的学术诚信。具体而言，该项目研究：（1）学生从他们的老师和同龄人那里接触到了什么关于学术诚信的信息？(2)这些社会信息是否引导学生对具体作弊案例的评价？（3）学生的评价是否与他们是否作弊的决定有关？研究1采用自然主义的课堂观察和提示对话作弊捕捉学生的生活经验，并确定相关的相关性。研究2通过调整自然发生的信息来影响学生对行为任务中作弊的评价和决定，从而实验性地测试了这些相关性。本研究通过阐明青少年对欺骗的信念是否指导他们的行为，在关于判断-行为关系的争论中取得了重要进展。该项目还为今后促进诚信的研究提供了经验基础（例如，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Drs. Gail Heyman and Kang Lee at The University of California, San Diego, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating adolescents’ evaluations of and engagement in academic dishonesty, and the social factors that guide them. Explaining psychological mechanisms that promote integrity during adolescence, a crucial developmental period, can support efforts to foster the next generation of civic members in our society.The present research takes a new theoretical approach to explaining cheating: That students are more likely to cheat in specific cases where they evaluate cheating as acceptable, and those evaluations are shaped by social messages from teachers and peers about cheating. To understand the content and consequences of these social messages on academic cheating and integrity, this project implements a multi-method investigation of adolescents’ experiences surrounding academic integrity. Specifically, the project examines: (1) What messages about academic integrity are students exposed to from their teachers and peers? (2) Do these social messages guide students’ evaluations of specific cases of cheating? and (3) Do students’ evaluations relate to their decisions about whether to cheat? Study 1 employs naturalistic classroom observations and prompted conversations about cheating to capture students’ lived experiences and identify relevant correlations. Study 2 experimentally tests these correlations by adapting the naturally-occurring messages to influence students’ evaluations and decisions about cheating in a behavioral task. This research makes important advances in the debate about judgment-action relations by shedding light on whether adolescents’ beliefs about cheating guide their actions. This project also provides an empirical foundation for future research on promoting integrity (e.g., intervention studies), and adds to our broader knowledge on adolescent identity development, social learning, and moral development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.