Individual differences in cheating during a temptation period when confronting failure.

Abstract

Investigated the effects of social desirability, need for social approval, self-satisfaction, and sex differences on the tendency to cheat when confronted with failure. 276 undergraduates were placed in a temptation situation in which they failed to meet social norms unless they cheated during a temptation period in which it appeared that cheating would be undetected. The 2 groups that were found to demonstrate the most extensive cheating were women scoring high on the self-satisfaction measure and Ss scoring high simultaneously on both the need for approval and self-satisfaction measures. It was found that men did not cheat significantly, that they demonstrated a greater expectancy of success and a higher level of aspiration than women, and that high scorers on the social desirability scale demonstrated a greater expectancy of success than low scorers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)