Keywords

Cognitive dissonance, hypocrisy, academic dishonesty, academic entitlement, classroom

Abstract

Academic dishonesty and academic entitlement plague many college campuses. This research applies the theory of cognitive dissonance to the classroom in an attempt to curb academic dishonesty. Hypocrisy, a branch of the theory of cognitive dissonance, has been induced with regards to health and pro-social causes, but has not been applied to the field of higher education. In order to apply the concept of hypocrisy to academic dishonesty, a two-part experiment was conducted. The first portion of the experiment was an in-class manipulation and the second portion was an online survey conducted one month after the manipulation. Two hundred two students participated in both portions of the experiment. The participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions (e.g., hypocrisy, commitment only, mindfulness only, control) and participated in two activities. One month after the manipulation took place, students were sent a link to the online survey with a cover story indicating that the survey was part of a research study. After the survey was closed, participants were debriefed and the data was cleaned. Upon analyzing the data, no significant results were detected. The lack of statistical significance was likely due to the month time lapse and the single dose of the manipulation treatment. Overall, this study pioneers the application of hypocrisy in the field of education and provides guidance for future hypocrisy induction studies.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2014

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Miller, Ann

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Communication

Degree Program

Communication; Interpersonal Communication

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0005338

URL

http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0005338

Language

English

Release Date

August 2014

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Sciences; Sciences -- Dissertations, Academic

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