engleski

The role of triarchic psychopathy in academic cheating

Academic cheating (academic dishonesty) includes a range of unethical behaviors in academic settings, such as using cheat notes on a test, plagiarizing from printed publications, etc. Previous research indicated the role of primary psychopathic traits in academic cheating, but there is no research on the relationship between triarchic psychopathic traits (includes components of meannes, boldness, and disinhibition ; Patrick, Fowles, & Krueger, 2009) and academic cheating, and neither on the mechanisms through which these psychopathic traits operate. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to investigate: a) the role of triarchic psychopathic traits in academic cheating ; b) the mediating role of attitudes towards cheating and behavioral engagement in the relationship between psychopathic traits and academic cheating behaviors.One hundred-and-seventy-three students (70% female, 22 years on average) completed several questionnaires: The Triarchic Psychopathy Measure, HEXACO-PI-R Honesty-Humility scale, Attitudes Toward Cheating Scale, Behavioral Engagement Scale, and Academic Cheating Behaviors Scale.As expected, TriPM Boldness and TriPM Disinhibition added incremental variance in explaining academic cheating, after controlling for the Fairness facet of the Honesty-Humility dimension. Also as expected, Boldness lead to more lenient attitudes toward cheating, which lead to lower behavioral engagement, which in turn lead to more academic cheating behaviors. On the other hand, the effect of disinhibition was not mediated by attitudes toward cheating.Overall, the results suggest that psychopathic traits display the effects on academic cheating, with boldness and disinhibition operating through different mechanisms. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Triarchic psychopathy, academic cheating, behavioral engagement

ISSN 1849-6946