A Pre-Registered Examination of the Relationship Between Personality, Stress, and Academic Cheating in the Age of Online Learning

The shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic provided university students with many more opportunities for academic cheating. Using survey data from 530 Canadian undergraduate students collected during the winter semester of 2021, we examined the relationships between stress due to COVID-19, attitudes, personality traits (i.e., HEXACO, psychopathy, grandiose and vulnerable narcissism, Machiavellianism), demographic variables, and engagement in academic cheating during the fall 2020 semester. Cheating was assessed using both a binary self-report (yes/no) and a checklist of 14 specific cheating behaviours. Overall, 67.5% of students admitted to engaging in at least one form of cheating (e.g., using textbooks during online exams), and 86.6% believed that moving classes online increased cheating rates among other students. Regression analyses indicated that younger age, positive attitudes toward cheating, and lower honesty-humility (e.g., dishonest, greedy, immodest) were associated with higher cheating engagement across both measures. On the other hand, grandiose narcissism was uniquely related to the behavioural checklist, whereas vulnerable narcissism was uniquely related to the binary cheating outcome. Contrary to our expectations, COVID-related stress was unrelated to cheating. Considering our findings, we discuss avenues for targeted interventions that may help promote academic integrity in current university settings.