Copiar en exámenes es una decisión racional? El caso de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas

Abstract

This article aims to determine the main factors that motivate undergraduate students of the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences (FCEA) to engage in academic dishonesty practices (DA) in evaluations. An exploratory sequential strategy was used, the first phase consisted of the application of semi-structured interviews to 11 students; and for its analysis the Grounded Theory is used. Then, the emerging hypotheses of the qualitative method were quantitatively evaluated through the application of a survey with a sample of 440 students. The findings suggest that the decision to incur in DA practices in evaluations is linked to the opportunity that arises to bypass the teachers' controls. In addition to other factors according to the limited rational choice theory such as the benefits of cheating related to obtaining the third level degree; underestimation of the costs associated with DA due to ignorance of the disciplinary process regulations, added to a low probability of complaint by teachers; severity of the sanctions applied by teachers and the normalization of the habit of cheating linked to behavioral biases such as herd behavior and the asymmetry of information regarding the labor market.