Nearly all students believe academic cheating is wrong, yet few students say they would report witnessed acts of cheating. To explain this apparent tension, the present research examined college students’ reasoning about whether to report plagiarism or other forms of cheating. Study 1 examined students’ conflicts when deciding whether to report cheating. Most students gave reasons against reporting a peer (e.g., social and physical consequences, a lack of responsibility to report) as well as reasons in favor of reporting (e.g., concerns about welfare, justice, and fairness). Study 2 provided experimental confirmation that the contextual factors referenced by Study 1 participants in fact influenced decisions about whether to report cheating. Overall, the findings indicate that students often decide against reporting peers’ acts of cheating, though not due to a lack of concern about integrity. Rather, students may refrain from reporting because of conflicting concerns, lack of information about school policy, and perceived better alternatives to reporting.

几乎所有学生都认为学术作弊是错误的，但很少有学生说他们会举报​​目击者的作弊行为。为了解释这种明显的张力，本研究调查了大学生关于是否举报窃或其他形式的作弊行为的推理。研究1在决定是否举报作弊行为时检查了学生的冲突。大多数学生给出反对举报同伴的原因（例如，社会和身体后果，缺乏举报责任）以及赞成举报的原因（例如，对福利，正义和公平的关注）。研究2提供了实验证实，研究1参与者所引用的情境因素实际上影响了有关是否举报作弊行为的决定。总体而言，调查结果表明，学生通常会决定反对举报同伴的作弊行为，尽管不是由于缺乏对完整性的关注。相反，学生可能会因为担忧的冲突，缺乏有关学校政策的信息以及被认为是更好的报告替代方法而避免进行报告。