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Rational Ignorance in Education: A Field Experiment in Student Plagiarism

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  • Thomas S. Dee
  • Brian A. Jacob
Abstract
Plagiarism appears to be a common problem among college students, yet there is little evidence on the effectiveness of interventions designed to minimize plagiarism. This study presents the results of a field experiment that evaluated the effects of a web-based educational tutorial in reducing plagiarism. We found that assignment to the treatment group substantially reduced the likelihood of plagiarism, particularly among student with lower SAT scores who had the highest rates of plagiarism. A followup survey suggests that the intervention reduced plagiarism by increasing student knowledge rather than by increasing the perceived probabilities of detection and punishment.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas S. Dee & Brian A. Jacob, 2012. "Rational Ignorance in Education: A Field Experiment in Student Plagiarism," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 47(2), pages 397-434.
    • Handle: RePEc:uwp:jhriss:v:46:y:2012:ii:1:p:397-434
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. A. Colin Cameron & Jonah B. Gelbach & Douglas L. Miller, 2008. "Bootstrap-Based Improvements for Inference with Clustered Errors," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 90(3), pages 414-427, August.
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    5. Anthony Downs, 1957. "An Economic Theory of Political Action in a Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 65(2), pages 135-135.
    6. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    7. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    8. Lori G. Power, 2009. "University Students' Perceptions of Plagiarism," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 80(6), pages 643-662, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dench, Daniel & Joyce, Theodore, 2022. "Information and credible sanctions in curbing online cheating among undergraduates: A field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 408-427.
    2. Bilen, Eren & Matros, Alexander, 2021. "Online cheating amid COVID-19," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 196-211.
    3. Jennifer A. Strangfeld, 2019. "I Just Don’t Want to Be Judged: Cultural Capital’s Impact on Student Plagiarism," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(1), pages 21582440188, January.
    4. Damgaard, Mette Trier & Nielsen, Helena Skyt, 2018. "Nudging in education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 313-342.
    5. Mohamad Khattar Awad & Bashar Zogheib & Hamed M.K. Alazemi, 2016. "On the optimality of escalating penalties for repeat offences against the academic honour code," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(7), pages 553-562, February.
    6. Claudio Lucifora & Marco Tonello, 2020. "Monitoring and Sanctioning Cheating at School: What Works? Evidence from a National Evaluation Program," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(4), pages 584-616.
    7. Mansour, Hani & Rees, Daniel I., 2011. "The Effect of Prenatal Stress on Birth Weight: Evidence from the al-Aqsa Intifada," IZA Discussion Papers 5535, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Lucifora, Claudio & Tonello, Marco, 2012. "Students' Cheating as a Social Interaction: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in a National Evaluation Program," IZA Discussion Papers 6967, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Lucifora, Claudio & Tonello, Marco, 2015. "Cheating and social interactions. Evidence from a randomized experiment in a national evaluation program," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 45-66.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior

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