Situational Factors Affecting Peer Reporting Intentions at the U.S. Air Force Academy: A Scenario-Based Investigation

Abstract

This study extends Trevino and Victor's (1992) initial research on the factors affecting peer reporting intentions. Approximately 400 cadets from the U.S. Air Force Academy indicated peer reporting intentions for 12 scenarios that systematically varied (a) the emotional closeness of the person committing the misconduct, (b) the severity of the misconduct, and (c) the presence or absence of other witnesses to the misconduct. The results indicated all three situational factors significantly affected cadets' intentions to report potential honor code violations. Implications for a peer reporting model based on Latane and Darley's (1970) bystander intervention model are discussed.

Notes

1 The fating results for the 20 honor code violations and 18 generic cadets can be obtained by contacting Gordon J. Curphy.

2 The 25-point response scale was used to determine whether the five response options used in the Cadet Toleration Questionnaire were “psychologically equidistant” in terms of the severity of action taken. Because the differences in severity among each of the five response options were not the same, we used the means found in Table 2 rather than use a more traditional 5-point scale to score the responses to the scenarios.

3 A copy of the entire Cadet Toleration Questionnaire can be obtained by contacting Gordon J. Curphy.

4 Copies of the severity, emotional closeness, and response scalings and the manipulation checks can be obtained by contacting Gordon J. Curphy.