Culture, collectivism-individualism and college student plagiarism

ABSTRACT

We tested a model in which individualist and collectivist orientations mediate the association between cultural background and students’ self-reported plagiarism. A sample of 430 Jewish and non-Jewish undergraduates at a college in northern Israel completed a questionnaire to assess individualist and collectivist orientation and demographics, and answered a question regarding whether they had committed plagiarism during their studies. The results partly supported the model; individualism, but not collectivism, mediated the association between cultural background and admitting plagiarism. The model and some unexpected results offer new insights into the role of culture in academic behavior and raise further questions.

KEYWORDS:

• Plagiarism
• college
• students
• ethnicity
• individualism
• collectivism

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.