THE TEACHING ECONOMIST - William A. McEachern 
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Issue 22, Spring 2002
William A. McEachern, Editor
Grapevine
To explore how student views of cheating differ across countries, Jan R. Magnus of Tilburg University in the Netherlands and three colleagues surveyed about 900 students in four countries--Russia, Netherlands, United States, and Israel. They posed the following hypothetical: "Student C reports to the departmental office that student A, while taking an exam, copied answers from student B's paper with the consent of student B." Student attitudes differed greatly across countries. Russian students hated student C's actions, quoting the Russian proverb, "First whip to the informer." Students in Israel and the Netherlands also disliked informers, though not as much as the Russians did. In the United States, cheating was condemned as unfair to other students, so U.S. students were more tolerant of informers. Except in Russia, high school students were less tolerant of informers than were undergraduates, who were less tolerant than graduate students. And everywhere except Russia, the higher the level of education, the less tolerant students were of student A, the primary cheater. Students at the same educational level in different countries had different attitudes toward A, B, and C. Students within a particular country had the same attitude toward A and B, but opposite views of A and C. The study, entitled "Tolerance of Cheating: An Analysis Across Countries," will appear in the Winter 2002 issue of the Journal of Economic Education (www.indiana.edu/~econed/). How do economics instructors deal with cheating? I surveyed course syllabi on the Web and found that many instructors simply refer students to college or university guidelines, codes of conduct, or other official documents. For example, Zhen Zhu of the University of Oklahoma states, "All acts of academic misconduct will be reported and adjudicated as prescribed by the Academic Misconduct Code." Some instructors are vague about the consequences, such as Ed Birdyshaw of the University of Oregon: "If a student is caught cheating, I will take the proper steps that are available to me in such situations."
When penalties are explicit, the minimum is failure on the exam or the paper (in the case of plagiarism). For example, Elynor Davis at Georgia Southern notes: "A plagiarized paper will receive a grade of 'F.' " And Charles C. Fisher of Pittsburg State in Kansas states: "Cheating and/or plagiarism will result in a score of zero for the particular assignment(s) involved (e.g., exam, quiz, home project)…Anyone helping another person cheat will also receive a score of zero for the item in question."
A more stringent penalty is failure in the course, as with Jennie Wenger of University of North Texas: "The minimal punishment for cheating will be 'F' in the course. Further action will be taken if deemed appropriate by the Chair of the Department." John Miller of Mercer University states, "Any student found guilty of cheating will automatically be awarded a grade of F in this course." Paul W. Grimes of Mississippi State is more direct: "First Offense: 'F' in the course." And Ann Merchant Ducharme of the University of Chicago adds a twist: "Students caught cheating will receive an "F" in the course, and will have the incident reported to their college advisor."
The strongest sanction is expulsion. Dan Black of the University of Kentucky warns in economic language: "The Department of Economics has a policy to make cheating very costly so that any benefits from cheating will be less than the expected cost of cheating. Thus, it is not optimal for you to cheat. If apprehended, cheaters will receive the maximum penalty; this may involve expulsion from the University." John-Charles Bradbury of George Mason University has the strongest language: "This is very important: If you cheat I will catch you, fail you, and publicly humiliate you....I will do everything in my power to see to it that you are expelled."
Finally, some instructors leave open a range of possible penalties. For example, Art O'Sullivan of Lewis and Clark College notes: "Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses and may be punished by (i) assigning a failing grade on the exam, paper, or project, (ii) assigning a failing grade for the course, or (iii) expulsion from the university."