An Examination of Academic Misconduct Intentions and the Ineffectiveness of Syllabus Statements

Abstract

This experiment uses quantitative and qualitative measures to address the effect of two syllabus statements on academic misconduct: one based on prohibitions and one on academic integrity. Students expressed favorable attitudes toward the statements, showed an increase in guilt compared to a control group, but showed no decrease in intentions to cheat. Including only a standard academic misconduct statement in one's syllabus is not sufficient to alter behavior, which should be acknowledged by faculty.

Keywords:

• academic integrity
• academic misconduct
• cheating intentions
• syllabus statements