A crowd composed mostly of psychology majors and faculty congregated in the Leak Room on Oct. 14 for a lecture and discussion session with Dr. Stephen F. Davis, a leading psychology researcher. Davis spoke on the motivations, techniques, contributing attitudes and long-term consequences of academic dishonesty, his talk entitled “Cheating and Education: The Most Dangerous Intersection.” The speech was also the capstone to Davis’ day on campus, during which he lunched with psychology majors, discussing career goals and life after Guilford.

Davis was introduced by Jennifer Scott, who described meeting with him as an “honor” and praised him both for his extensive publication of articles and textbooks and because “he took the time to help (students) along in research.” Davis discussed a recent study on cheating. More than 30,000 questionnaires were administered to college students across the country, with questions about the frequency of cheating in high school. Davis found that 80 percent in each sample admitted to cheating in high school. On the first questionnaire, between 40 and 60 percent of respondents admitted to cheating on tests, and of this group, half were “hard-core repeat offenders.” Techniques for cheating ranged from the mundane, such as looking on someone else’s paper or bringing in a cheat sheet, to the more outlandish. Among the more exotic techniques found were elaborate systems of body postures and pencil-symbolism, test theft, paper-trading, plastic wrapped memos smuggled in by mouth, note laden “paper flowers” pinned to blouses, thigh-jotting/skirt hiking, and a Bond-esque spy cam/alphanumeric pager combination (with a man on the outside). One student in the study described an ingenious scheme in which he “hid a calculator down (his) pants.” The role of technology is omnipresent in these plots, as students can take advantage of everything from text messaging to portable music players in order to pull one over on educators. Plagiarism is also rampant, with sites like “chuckiii.com” offering over 20,000 poorly written papers for free. Sites like this even sell Masters theses and Ph.D. dissertations. It would seem that any yahoo with a credit card and a weak conscience can now buy a degree. Academic pressures are nothing new, so why the sudden increase in cheating? “Colleges are becoming harder to get into,” observed senior Sarah Shotwell. Davis agreed, adding an explanation of the “neutralization effect,” where cheaters feel justified by “unfair” standards or “meaningless material.”

Compounded by the demands of finite time, familial expectation and other obligations, cheating for some seems to be the only route to success.

Davis explained that these forces have culminated in a change of attitude. Cheaters are now more motivated by external forces, be it wealth or prestige or just a few chuckles, rather than the intrinsic gain of education.

Any means of satisfying external forces become acceptable, leading one respondent to the bitter conclusion that “old morals in new times just don’t mix.”

Davis suggested that faculty, to address this problem in the short term, take some measures to minimize cheating on tests. These include spreading students out, administering different tests, not leaving the classroom, and proctoring the test. Administrative measures, like Guilford’s academic honor code, and tight sense of community also help.

“It’s such a small campus that if people around you see you doing something weird, they’re going to say something,” said senior Terry Winters. Davis agreed that Guilford was remarkable in its dearth of academic dishonesty.

“If students are not an integral part (of the honor code), it will not work,” stressed Davis, who felt that the “comfort level” for academic dishonesty has grown, and that some schools are tolerating forms of cheating that are “not serious.”

“90 percent of students saw no problem in (fabricating data),” Davis said of academic dishonesty in scientific lab reports. “They may get a federal grant…will they cook their data for that?”

For more on this issue, visit www.academicintegrity.org.