Attitudes and understanding are only part of the story: self-control, age and self-imposed pressure predict plagiarism over and above perceptions of seriousness and understanding

Abstract

Although individual and socio-demographic factors are known to affect student plagiarism there is little research conducted to show how the milieu of factors interact with each other to influence plagiarism behaviour. University students (N = 891) completed surveys on several possible predictors of plagiarism and plagiarism engagement. It was found that predictors of plagiarism accounted for 22.9% of variance in student’s engagement in plagiarism behaviour. The following variables all predicted plagiarism engagement over and above students’ understanding of plagiarism and perception of plagiarism as serious: self-control, pressure from self and others to achieve high grades, age, gender, culture and study major. These findings are important as they highlight the need for interventions that target student perceptions and personal factors such as self-control.

Keywords:

• Plagiarism
• self-control
• self-imposed pressure

Acknowledgements

Some data collected from the same sample of participants examining historical trends in plagiarism is published in Curtis and Tremayne (2019). Thank you to honours students Kit Wing Fu, Daniel MacDonald and Cynthia Guthrie who helped with data collection.

Declaration of interest statement

We do not have any conflict of interest regarding this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kell Tremayne

Kell Tremayne is a Lecturer at Western Sydney University. His research interests are focused on wellbeing and the understanding academic integrity.

Guy J. Curtis

Guy J. Curtis is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Western Australia. His research interests are focused on applications of psychology in understanding academic integrity and leadership.