Intrinsic Motivation Predicts Less Cheating During Adolescence: Evidence From Self-Reports and a Performance Task

• In Event: The "Dark Side" of Motivation: Unpacking Malleable Personal Factors Associated With Academic Dishonesty

Abstract

Background
Academic skill-development tasks (e.g., homeworks) are assignments intended to help students practice skills that support long-term academic success (Epstein & Voorhis, 2001). When faced with a tedious skill development assignment (e.g., a large set of math practice problems), students may feel tempted to take unauthorized shortcuts that minimize the amount of effort necessary to complete the assignment. Giving in to this temptation can be detrimental, as homework effort positively predicts achievement in adolescence (Trautwein, 2007).

Objectives
The present study aimed to identify personal factors associated with cheating on skill-development assignments. Adopting the perspective of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000b, 2017), we hypothesized that students who have more intrinsic motives for learning, i.e., a desire to learn for the sake and enjoyment of learning, may be less willing to take shortcuts on assignments with the potential to support learning. Meanwhile, students with more extrinsic motives for learning may be more willing to take shortcuts because they primarily see learning as instrumental to the fulfillment of other goals.

Methods
To obtain a standardized measure of students’ willingness to take time-saving shortcuts on a tedious assignment that has the potential to build useful skills, we developed a novel, web-based performance task: the Academic Shortcuts Task (see Figures 1-3). Study 1 (N = 244 8th and 9th grade students; 48% female) examined whether behavior on the Academic Shortcuts Task (2 blocks, 25 problems each) could be predicted by students’ self-reported intrinsic and extrinsic self-oriented motives for learning (Yeager et al., 2014). Study 2 (N = 110 9th grade students; 56% female) attempted to conceptually replicate Study 1 using a shorter version of the Shortcuts Task (2 blocks, 15 problems each) and self-reported cheating on homework.

Results
Tables 1 and 2 show the distributions of and correlations between the variables of interest in Study 1 and 2, respectively. In Study 1, 74% of participants cheated on the Academic Shortcuts Task at least once. Regression analysis indicated that, holding other variables constant, stronger intrinsic motives for learning predicted fewer shortcuts taken on the task, while extrinsic motives for learning did not (see Model 4 in Table 3).
In Study 2, 51% of participants cheated on the Shortcuts Task at least once. Holding other variables constant, neither intrinsic not extrinsic motives for learning emerged as significant predictors of behavior on the Academic Shortcuts Task (see Model 4 in Table 4); this may be due a small sample size and the large degree of variance in the task. However, conceptually replicating Study 1, intrinsic motives for learning negatively predicted shortcut-taking holding other variables constant, while extrinsic motives for learning did not (see Model 4 in Table 3).

Significance
Data collection for Study 2 is still underway, but both studies suggest that cheating on skill-development tasks during adolescence may be helped by enhancing the quality of students’ motivation to learn, specifically the degree to which they have intrinsic motives for learning. Future research could use the Academic Shortcuts Task to investigate the causal relationship between these variables.

Authors

• Melanie Gonzalez, The University of Texas at Austin

• David Yeager, The University of Texas at Austin