Objective. To explore the relation between dispositional traits and pharmacy students’ attitudes toward cheating in a university setting.
Methods. A questionnaire was administered primarily to pharmacy students at a comprehensive university in the southeastern United States to assess self-esteem, self-efficacy, idealism, relativism, student attitudes toward cheating, tolerance for peer cheating, detachment from the university, Machiavellian behavior, and demographic information.
Results. Gender, degree of idealism, relativism, and Machiavellian traits were found to influence student attitudes toward cheating, while age, grade-point average (GPA), race, income, and marital status did not.
Conclusions. Considered collectively, these data support the study model prediction that the major determinants of student attitudes toward cheating are based on the degree of idealism and relativism evident in the students’ dispositional trait. Idealism was found to be inversely related to the likelihood of a student engaging in cheating or tolerating peer cheating.
