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Do academic honesty statements work?

Author

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  • James Alm
  • Patrick Button
  • Christine P. Smith
  • Toni Weiss

Abstract

Many colleges have attempted to deal with student cheating by using “academic honesty statements,” or statements that students must read and acknowledge that they will follow. In this article, the authors conduct a randomized controlled experiment that investigates the impact of academic honesty statements on college student examination performance, using an objective measure of student examination performance as a proxy for student cheating. Overall, the authors find no statistically significant differences in the test performance of students who are given the academic honesty statements and those who are not. These results indicate that academic honesty statements do not affect student performance in a significant way, so their use is unlikely to be a reliable tool in reducing cheating. However, other explanations are possible.

Suggested Citation

  • James Alm & Patrick Button & Christine P. Smith & Toni Weiss, 2026. "Do academic honesty statements work?," The Journal of Economic Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(1), pages 1-13, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jeduce:v:57:y:2026:i:1:p:1-13
    DOI: 10.1080/00220485.2025.2541611
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