Faking the Grade

522 Words2 Pages

Cheaters are becoming more common among young people. Three out of four students surveyed said that they have cheated in high school. This statistic shows that teachers and parents should be concerned about which direction these students are heading. The biggest influence on the act of students cheating is social institutions such as family, school, and mass media. These institutions all play roles on what a student values when it comes to the battle between academic honesty and dishonesty. Social theories such as, the Bystander Effect, the Strain Theory of Deviance, and the Social Norms Theory further our understanding about the reasoning behind cheating. The theory first introduced by John Darley and Bibb Latané called the Bystander Effect states that in an emergency, the more people there are, the less likely it is that an individual will help. On the other hand, if there are no people around, an individual passing by is more likely to help. The emergency in this theory can be compared to cheating. The more teachers and cameras that are around during a test or exam, the less like...

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