The honor statement and student attitudes towards cheating at the University of Tennessee

Studies indicate cheating to be a pervasive problem in higher learning institutions, but the question of how to resolve such a dilemma remains unanswered. Several researchers have demonstrated the effectiveness of the honor code; hence, this study focuses on whether awareness of an honor statement affects student attitudes towards academic dishonesty.

Students in two sections of an Introduction to Chemistry course at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, were randomly selected to participate in the study. The treatment group received constant exposure to the University's honor statement throughout the duration of one semester, while the control group received no reminder of the honor statement. A pretest was administered at the beginning of the Fall semester, 1996, and a posttest was given at the conclusion of that semester.

The data was subjected to an analysis of variance (ANOVA), t-tests, and a Mann-Whitney U test to determine whether there were any differences in attitude towards cheating. No statistically significant differences resulted. Nevertheless, a small fluctuation in mean scores for the treatment group possibly indicates a difference in attitude perhaps due to the treatment itself (exposure to the honor statement). A more aggressive treatment might have yielded statistically significant results.