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Does Bad Company Corrupt Good Morals? Social Bonding and Academic Cheating among French and Chinese Teens

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Abstract

A well-known common wisdom asserts that strong social bonds undermine delinquency. However, there is little empirical evidence to substantiate this assertion regarding adolescence academic cheating across cultures. In this study, we adopt social bonding theory and develop a theoretical model involving four social bonds (parental attachment, academic commitment, peer involvement, and moral values) and adolescence self-reported academic cheating behavior and cheating perception. Based on 913 adolescents (average age = 15.88) in France (n = 429) and China (n = 484), we show that parental attachment, academic commitment, and moral values curb academic cheating; counterintuitively, peer involvement contributes to cheating. We test our theoretical model across culture and gender, separately, using multi-group analyses. For French teens, peer involvement encourages and moral values undermine cheating; for Chinese adolescents, all four social bonds contribute to cheating, similar to the whole sample. For girls, parental attachment deters, but peer involvement enhances cheating. For boys, parental attachment is the only social bond that does not affect cheating. We treat social integration (popularity) as a mediator of the relationship between peer involvement and social bonds that construct, in turn, is related to cheating and ask: Considering popularity, who are likely to cheat? Our answers provide an interesting paradox: Popularity matters, yet popular French girls and unpopular Chinese boys are likely to cheat. Social sharing is a positive pro-social behavior in consumer behavior. However, academic cheating and rule breaking, reflecting self-serving altruism and the red sneakers effect, at a very young age may have the potential to grow into the Enron Effect later in their lives as executives in organizations. We shed new lights on both the bright and dark sides of social bonds on cheating, demonstrate bad company corrupts good morals, differently, across culture and gender, and provide practical implications to social bonding, business ethics, and cheating.

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Notes

  1. 1 Corinthians 15: 33.

  2. We used the terms social bonding theory and social bonds in our search, using Web of Science.

  3. According to People, Accessed on October 2, 2015. (http://www.people.com/article/oregon-shooting-gunman-had-obsession-satan?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_715737&xid=partner_zergnet).

  4. Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7: 13–14).

  5. Shi (giving) can be linked up with different nouns, including giving goods (shi shan) and giving medicine (shi-yi), but much more often with giving teaching/education (shi jiao). It is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20: 35). God loves a cheerful giver (2 Coriinthians 9: 7). Give and gifts will be given to you (Luke 6: 38).

  6. The 10 most shared objects were “class notes,” “electronics,” “books,” “chat sessions” (SKYPE, MSN), “music or game files,” “a T-shirt,” “a drink,” “clothing accessories” (belt, scarf, hat, …), “a snack,” and “sports equipment (racquets, balls).”

  7. Several methods exist to construct a confidence interval based on the “bootstrap.” The “Bias-Corrected Bootstrap” adjusts the bias in the distribution (MacKinnon et al. 2004).

  8. The indirect effect is obtained by multiplying the two direct paths: Path 1 * Path 2.

  9. On the surface, results of two positive paths ((+) * (+) = (+)) and two negative paths ((−) * (−) = (+)) are the same.

  10. Some elite private universities and high schools practice these principles and create an honest student body.

  11. Flight attendant Debra Neil told the cockpit crew: “We have a problem.” David Burke shot the flight attendant, announced “I’m the problem,” and killed the pilots and the PSA’s Chief Pilot in LA. David Burke had seven children by different women, but was never married. Some described him as a violent man. An episode of the Canadian TV series, Mayday, featured this incident, entitled: “I’m the problem.” “Murder on board” was the title for the UK version of Air Crash Investigation.

  12. The Parable of the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18: 10–14; Luke 15: 1–7). The Parable of the Lost Son (Luke 15: 11–31). For he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust (Matthew 4: 43–44). Jesus calls Matthew: Matthew 9: 12; Mark 2: 17.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovation Research Team (PCSIRT) in University, Ministry of Education, China (Grant No. IRT 13030) awarded to the third author for financial support and Joshua Pentecost for his assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SKEMA Business School, MERCUR Research Center, Université de Lille, Avenue Will Brandt, 59777, Euralille, France

    Elodie Gentina

  2. Department of Management, Jennings A. Jones College of Business, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN, 37132, USA

    Thomas Li-Ping Tang

  3. Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Hua Shan Rd., Shanghai, 200030, China

    Qinxuan Gu

Authors
  1. Elodie Gentina
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  2. Thomas Li-Ping Tang
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  3. Qinxuan Gu
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Correspondence to Thomas Li-Ping Tang.

Appendix: Items and Constructs of Our Major Measures

Appendix: Items and Constructs of Our Major Measures

Social Bonds*

Parental attachment

  1. 1.

    My parents put a lot of time and energy into helping me.

  2. 2.

    My parents find time to talk to me.

  3. 3.

    My parents spend a lot of time with me.

Academic commitment

  1. 4.

    I know how to study to perform well on tests.

  2. 5.

    I am a very good student.

  3. 6.

    I usually do very well in school and at academic tasks.

Peer involvement

  1. 7.

    I share class notes with my classmates.

  2. 8.

    I share electronics” (chargers and cables, USBs, calculators) with my classmates.

  3. 9.

    I share books with my classmates.

Moral values

  1. 10.

    Doing something I know is wrong makes me lose my self-respect.

  2. 11.

    I couldn’t respect myself if I didn’t live up to a moral code.

  3. 12.

    My self-esteem would suffer if I did something unethical.

Academic Cheating

Cheating behavior**

  1. 13.

    Looking at or copying from someone else’s exam during a test.

  2. 14.

    Allowed someone else to copy from your exam during a test.

  3. 15.

    Gave answers to someone during an exam.

Cheating perception***

  1. 16.

    I believe cheating on an exam is _____.

  2. 17.

    I believe not reporting a classmate for cheating on an exam is _____.

  3. 18.

    I believe copying a published article and turning it in as my term paper is _____.

Social Integration*

  1. 19.

    I feel socially accepted by peers in my school class.

  2. 20.

    I feel popular in my school class.

  3. 21.

    I do not feel excluded from others.

All items were measured using a 5-point scale with different scale anchors.

*Scale anchors ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5).

**Scale anchors ranging from never to very often.

***Scale anchors ranging from always acceptable to always unacceptable.

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Gentina, E., Tang, T.LP. & Gu, Q. Does Bad Company Corrupt Good Morals? Social Bonding and Academic Cheating among French and Chinese Teens. J Bus Ethics 146, 639–667 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2939-z

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