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Rude assessment and I'm faking it: does witnessing incivility compel people to cheat?

Buehner, Marc ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4202-7511 and Townsend, Elizabeth 2015. Rude assessment and I'm faking it: does witnessing incivility compel people to cheat? Assessment and Development Matters 7 (4) , pp. 20-24.

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Abstract

The ease and convenience of personality testing for personnel selection purposes is somewhat marred by concerns that test-takers might fake their responses if they believe it is advantageous to do so. Whether or not a candidate fakes is determined by both the ability as well as the motivation to do so, and both are subject to individual difference as well as contextual factors. Here we report an experiment that demonstrates a powerful contextual link between rudeness and cheating. Participants who witnessed a rude encounter prior to a performance-linked cognitive task, subsequently overstated their performance (i.e. cheated) to a greater extent than participants who witnessed a neutral encounter but had the same opportunity to cheat. We suggest therefore that rudeness increases propensity to cheat. Consequently, to minimize the risk of test-takers providing fake responses, it is of practical importance to ensure a civil atmosphere before and during any testing situation that might afford an opportunity to cheat.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Psychology
Publisher: British Psychological Society
ISSN: 2040-4069
Related URLs:
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 14 August 2017
Date of Acceptance: 14 October 2015
Last Modified: 05 May 2023 09:05
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/103609

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