To Cheat or Not to Cheat: Reducing Cheating by Requesting Self-Prophecy

Abstract

Cheating in college is widely acknowledged as a serious problem. A review of the research on cheating suggests adequate understanding of it but little insight into solutions. A psychological phenomenon referred to as the self-prophecy effect is reviewed and proposed as the basis for an intervention based on asking students to predict whether they would cheat. We conducted an experiment with one group making a prediction about cheating and the other group not doing so. Subsequent cheating behavior was monitored. The results indicated the prediction request resulted in significantly less cheating.