EFFECTS ON CHEATING OF ACHIEVEMENT ANXIETY AND KNOWLEDGE OF PEER PERFORMANCE

Found, as predicted, that cheating, operationally defined as the falsification of scores on a word-construction task, was influenced by achievement anxiety and knowledge of the performance of a peer reference group in 111 high school Ss. Achievement anxiety was positively correlated with cheating only when knowledge of reference-group performance was provided. Providing Ss with knowledge of the reference group's superior or inferior performance elicited cheating only at high anxiety levels. Results are interpreted in terms of the general hypothesis that cheating is a response instrumental to the avoidance of aversive social consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.