For the last 15 years, Don McCabe has looked into what influences a student to peek over at the test of the person next to them or to pass off an internet-purchased essay as their own.
McCabe is a professor of Management and Global Business at the University, and also the founding president of the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University.
His research in the past 15 years on cheating has included over 140 colleges and universities in both the United States and Canada, surveying over 100,000 students.
Aside from college-level cheating, he has focused on high school students as well.
According to his research, high school students report a higher level of cheating than college-level students.
Does this mean that cheating originates at a younger age and the habit transfers over to college?
"It often does originate at younger levels but also can be very situational so that there are some students who may well cheat in college for the first time," McCabe said.
Data show that 75 percent of the 4,500 high school students surveyed engage in serious cheating, according to a national survey by the Rutgers Management Education Center.
"There are many reasons different students cheat," McCabe said. "Time pressures, competitiveness, panic, a way of life."
In a CNN article, "Survey: Many students say cheating's OK," students respond to McCabe's findings.
One student, Alice Newhall who attends a top school in northern Virginia, said the pressure to do well academically and compete for good colleges has made cheating a way to survive high school.
"What's important is getting ahead," Newhall said. "The better you do, that's what shows. It's not how moral you were in getting there."
And this mentality attributes morality to the real world as well.
Aside from academic pressure, the most common response on why students cheat is due to the corruption of the adult world they see, including politicians and celebrities.
"I think kids today are looking to adults and society for a moral compass and when they see the behavior occurring there, they don't understand why they should be held to a higher standard," McCabe said in the CNN article.
There are many reasons why students do cheat, and knowing or not knowing possible consequences they still continue, but why does this not stop them?
"It depends on the student," McCabe said. "Some obviously think they won't be caught. Some really don't care because they feel the reward outweighs the risk, especially if penalties [at their school] aren't severe. "
"Some simply panic and others simply do not think about the consequences assuming somehow they'll get off if they're caught," he said.
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