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Academic Dishonesty in the Middle East: Individual and Contextual Factors

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Abstract

Little work has been done on academic dishonesty in the Middle East. This research investigates the nature of the relationship between contextual factors and academic dishonesty using a sample from three private universities in Lebanon, and compares the results to a sample from seven large universities in the US. Using the basic model of McCabe et al. (Research in Higher Education 43(3):357–378, 2002), we found additional evidence for the strong role perception of peers’ behavior plays in understanding student decisions concerning academic integrity. Cross cultural comparisons of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors regarding academic dishonesty were pivotal in this research. Our results support the view that Lebanese university students are strongly influenced by the norms of the collectivist society in which they are raised as compared to the more individualistic society found in the United States.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rutgers Business School, 111 Washington Street, Newark, NJ, 07102, USA

    Donald L. McCabe

  2. Suliman S. Olayan School of Business, American University of Beirut, P.O. Box 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon

    Tony Feghali & Hanin Abdallah

Authors
  1. Donald L. McCabe
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  2. Tony Feghali
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  3. Hanin Abdallah
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Correspondence to Donald L. McCabe.

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McCabe, D.L., Feghali, T. & Abdallah, H. Academic Dishonesty in the Middle East: Individual and Contextual Factors. Res High Educ 49, 451–467 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-008-9092-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-008-9092-9

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