The Association between Religion and Self-Reported Academic Honesty among College Students

Current research yields inconsistent findings about the association between religious variables and academic cheating among college students. In this study, we investigated possible reasons for this disagreement by examining whether, and to what extent, three particular religious variables: religious identity, affirmation of importance and religious services attendance, are associated with academic honesty among college students. Specifically, we utilised a sample of 2503 American college-aged students from Gallup® daily tracking survey and used analysis of variance (ANOVA) to address the proposed research question. Research findings indicate that religious service attendance is positively associated with academic honesty among college students. Specifically, students who attend religious services more frequently are less likely to be engaged in academic misconduct than students who attend less frequently. This finding remains consistent when other important factors such as student attitudes toward cheating and gender were included in the analysis.