Interpretations

Conduct - Cheating and Lying

By personal observation 47.5% of respondents say that they saw cheating going on in examinations. 22.6% admitted to cheating often including 5.6% who admitted doing it more than 10 times. About the same number let others cheat off them - a form of cheating. Discipline by teacher could be for cheating, lying, copying or plagiarizing reports, or other things. 4% did so often and 0.7% more than 10 times. These numbers refer only to those who were caught. The 0.7% may identify a hard core unscrupulous group whose morality is severely diminished.

Comparing the Josephson study, we are about the same, since ours showed a total of 35.9% who admitted cheating (all those who were left after subtracting those who denied cheating). Their study showed 67% denying cheating (69%F / 65%M) leaving 33% who admitted cheating.

Fidelity

The duty of Fidelity is what allows human relationships of any kind to go on. Promise keeping was broken by 35%. The question said important promises so this figure is very significant. A far smaller number borrowed money without intending to repay, indicating that most respect the institution of money even though 7% think it acceptable not to repay a loan. And we have the same hardcore 0.7% of character deficient persons showing up here too.

Dishonesty, Stealing and Deception

In this category there is a good deal of stealing going on including outright stealing from a store to stealing software and using false ID all of which are about equal at 14%. Keeping too much change is more common because it involves small amounts of money and the situation may not always be clear at the moment. Stealing from relatives is less common because family ties are strong and borrowing is easier. In the Josephson study, 17% of all respondents admitted stealing from a store (14%F / 21%M), a little higher than our group. 12% admitted to stealing from a parent or relative. In our study, 14% of college students admitted to stealing.

Lying and Deception

In this grouping all the results are the same, running around 4.0% for doing it often, half to one percent for very frequent (same as the 0.7% above) but a difference in those who said never did, twenty percent lied on job application, 15% on a resume, and about 10% on financial matters. They feel that lying to get a job is less serious than lying to get money. Using unauthorized credit card is more personal and so done less often. In the Josephson study, 39% of college students said they would lie about their debts to get a badly needed loan.  43% would lie to enhance a resume to get job, and 47% would lie on a health insurance application form.

Disciplined

These figures represent the number of times they were caught and are therefore only an indication of how many times they were actually dishonest.