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Effects of performance goals and social norms on academic dishonesty in a test
Author(s) -
Daumiller Martin,
Janke Stefan
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/bjep.12310
Subject(s) - cheating , academic dishonesty , dishonesty , psychology , social psychology , norm (philosophy) , test (biology) , affect (linguistics) , political science , communication , biology , paleontology , law
Background Previous research has shown that achievement goals affect the frequency of academic dishonesty. However, mixed findings suggest that especially the effect of performance goals might depend on contextual factors. Aims We wanted to investigate whether crucial aspects of the achievement situation influence the magnitude of the effect of performance goals (here: focused on appearance) on dishonesty. Specifically, we propose that social norms regarding the acceptance of dishonesty moderate the positive effect of performance goals on academic dishonesty. Sample We sampled 105 German university students. They were teacher trainees, mostly in their first year at university and on average 20.6 ( SD = 3.6) years old (72.4% female). Method We conducted a 2 (induced appearance goals vs. no goal induction) × 2 (cheating confederate vs. no observable cheating behaviour by this person) experiment. A manipulation check confirmed that the manipulation of appearance goals was successful. Cheating behaviour was observed by a confederate student and subsequently classified by two raters. Additionally, participants’ dishonesty in self‐presentation questions was measured using deviations from baseline measures. Results The induction of appearance goals only led to increased cheating when the social norm suggested that cheating behaviour was an acceptable way to increase performance (i.e., cheating confederate condition). For deceiving, we found a positive main effect of appearance goals. Appearance goals mediated these effects from goal manipulation on academic dishonesty. Conclusions Taken together, our results highlight that the mixed findings on the effect of performance goals on academic dishonesty might be due to uninvestigated moderators such as social norms. Future research should build on these findings to identify additional moderators.