ABSTRACT
With few exceptions, the thrust of this research has centered on one of the most basic ethical decisions faced by college students-to cheat or not to cheat on their academic work. With increasing competition for the most desired positions in the job market and for the few coveted places available at the nation's leading business, law, and medical schools, today's undergraduates experience considerable pressure to do well. Research shows that all too often these pressures lead to decisions to engage in various forms of academic dishonesty (e.g., Bowers, 1964; McCabe, Treviño, & Butterfield, 1999). Research also shows that these transgressions are often overlooked or treated lightly by faculty who do not want to become involved in what they perceive as the bureaucratic procedures designed to adjudicate allegations of academic dishonesty on their campus (e.g., McCabe, 1993; Nuss, 1984; Singhal, 1982). Students who might otherwise complete their work honestly observe this phenomenon and convince themselves they cannot afford to be disadvantaged by students who cheat and go unreported or unpunished. Although many find it distasteful, they too begin cheating to "level the playing field."
