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鈥淲hy did you cheat in high school?鈥� I posed the question to a dozen former students.

鈥淚 wanted good grades and I didn鈥檛 want to work,鈥� said Sonya,听who graduates from college in June. [The students鈥� names in this article have been changed to protect their privacy.]

My current students were less candid than Sonya. To excuse her plagiarized Cannery Row essay, Erin, a ninth-grader with straight As, complained vaguely and unconvincingly of overwhelming stress. When he was caught copying a review of the documentary Hypernormalism, Jeremy, a senior, stood by his 鈥渉ard work鈥� and said my accusation hurt his feelings.

Cases like the () 2012 cheating scandal at high-achieving Stuyvesant High School in New York City confirm that academic dishonesty is rampant and touches even the most prestigious of schools. The data confirms this as well. A 2012 revealed that more than half of high school students admitted to cheating on a test, while 74 percent reported copying their friends鈥� homework. And a across the United States between 2002 and 2015 found that 58 percent had plagiarized papers, while 95 percent admitted to cheating in some capacity.

So why do students cheat鈥攁nd how do we stop them?

According to researchers and psychologists, the real reasons vary just as much as my students鈥� explanations. But educators can still learn to identify motivations for student cheating and think critically about solutions to keep even the most audacious cheaters in their classrooms from doing it again.

Rationalizing It

鈥‵irst, know that students realize cheating is wrong鈥攖hey simply see themselves as moral in spite of it.

鈥淭hey cheat just enough to maintain a self-concept as honest people. They make their behavior an exception to a general rule,鈥� said , professor at the University of Mary Washington and executive director of the Center for Honor, Leadership, and Service, a campus organization dedicated to integrity.

According to Rettinger and other researchers, students who cheat can still see themselves as principled people by rationalizing cheating for reasons they see as legitimate.

Some do it when they don鈥檛 see the value of work they鈥檙e assigned, such as drill-and-kill听homework assignments, or when they perceive听an overemphasis on teaching content linked to high-stakes tests.

鈥淭here was no critical thinking, and teachers seemed pressured to squish it into their curriculum,鈥� said Javier, a former student and recent liberal arts college graduate. 鈥淭hey questioned you on material that was never covered in class, and if you failed the test, it was progressively harder to pass the next time around.鈥�

But students also rationalize cheating on assignments they see as having value.

High-achieving students who feel pressured to attain perfection (and Ivy League acceptances)听may turn to cheating as a way to find an edge on the competition or to keep a single bad test score from sabotaging months of hard work. At Stuyvesant, for example, students and teachers as a factor in the rampant dishonesty that plagued the school.

And research has found that students who receive praise for being smart鈥攁s opposed to praise for effort and progress鈥攁re more inclined to , likely because they are carrying the

A Developmental Stage

When it comes to risk management, adolescent students are bullish. are biologically predisposed to be more tolerant of unknown outcomes and less bothered听by stated risks than their older peers.

鈥淚n high school, they鈥檙e risk takers developmentally, and can鈥檛 see the consequences of immediate actions,鈥� Rettinger says. 鈥淓ven delayed consequences are remote to them.鈥�

While cheating may not be a thrill ride,听students already inclined to rebel against curfews and dabble in illicit substances have a certain comfort level with being reckless. They鈥檙e willing to gamble when they think they can keep up the ruse鈥攁nd more inclined to believe they can get away with it.

Cheating also appears to be almost contagious among young people鈥攁nd may even serve as a kind of social adhesive, at least in environments where it is widely accepted.听 from 1959 to 2002 revealed that students in communities where cheating is tolerated easily cave in to peer pressure, finding it harder not to cheat out of fear of losing social status if they don鈥檛.

Michael, a former student, explained that while he didn鈥檛 need to help classmates cheat, he felt 鈥渦nable to say no.鈥� Once he started, he couldn鈥檛 stop.

Technology Facilitates and Normalizes It

With smartphones and Alexa at their fingertips, today鈥檚 students have easy access to quick answers and content they can reproduce for exams and papers.听 has made cheating in school easier, more convenient, and harder to catch than ever before.

To Liz Ruff, an English teacher at Garfield High School in Los Angeles, students鈥� use of social media can erode their understanding of authenticity and intellectual property. Because students are used to reposting images, repurposing memes, and watching parody videos, they 鈥渟ee ownership as nebulous,鈥� she said.

As a result, while they may want to avoid penalties for plagiarism, they may not see it as wrong or even know that they鈥檙e doing it.

This confirms what Donald McCabe, a听Rutgers University Business School professor,听; he found that more than 60 percent of surveyed students who had cheated considered digital plagiarism to be 鈥渢rivial鈥濃�攅ffectively, students believed it was not actually cheating at all.

Strategies for Reducing Cheating

Even moral students need help acting morally, said听, who researches academic motivation and moral development in adolescents at the University of Auckland鈥檚 School of Learning, Development, and Professional Practice. According to Stephens, teachers are uniquely positioned to infuse students with a sense of responsibility and help them overcome the rationalizations that enable them to think cheating is OK.

1. Turn down the pressure cooker. Students are less likely to cheat on work in which they feel invested. A multiple-choice assessment tempts would-be cheaters, while a unique, multiphase writing project measuring competencies can make cheating much harder and less enticing. Repetitive homework assignments are also a culprit, , so teachers should look at creating take-home assignments that encourage students to think critically and expand on class discussions. Teachers could also give students one free pass on a homework assignment each quarter, for example, or let them drop their lowest score on an assignment.

2. Be thoughtful about your language.听, like praising children for being smart听as , is both demotivating and increases cheating.听When delivering feedback, researchers suggest听using phrases focused on effort听like, 鈥淵ou made really great progress on this paper鈥� or听鈥淭his is excellent work, but there are still a few areas where you can grow.鈥�

3. Create student honor councils. Give students the opportunity to enforce honor codes or write their own classroom/school bylaws through honor councils so they can develop a full understanding of how cheating affects themselves and others. At Fredericksburg Academy, high school students elect two Honor Council members per grade. These students teach the Honor Code to fifth graders, who, in turn, explain it to younger elementary school students to help establish a student-driven culture of integrity. Students also write a pledge of authenticity on every assignment. And if there is an honor code transgression, the council gathers to discuss possible consequences.听

4. Use metacognition. Research shows that metacognition, a process sometimes described as 鈥�,鈥� can help students process their motivations, goals, and actions. With my ninth graders, I use a centuries-old resource to discuss moral quandaries: the play Macbeth. Before they meet the infamous Thane of Glamis, they role-play as medical school applicants, soccer players, and politicians, deciding if they鈥檇 cheat, injure, or lie to achieve goals. I push students to consider the steps they take to get the outcomes they desire. Why do we tend to act in the ways we do? What will we do to get what we want? And how will doing those things change who we are? Every tragedy is about us, I say, not just, as in Macbeth鈥檚 case, about a man who succumbs to 鈥渧aulting ambition.鈥�

5. Bring honesty right into the curriculum. Teachers can听weave a discussion of ethical behavior into curriculum. Ruff and have been inspired to teach media literacy to help students understand digital plagiarism and navigate the widespread availability of secondary sources online, using guidance from organizations like .

There are complicated psychological dynamics at play when students cheat, according to experts and researchers. While enforcing rules and consequences is important, knowing what鈥檚 really motivating students to cheat can help you foster integrity in the classroom instead of just penalizing the cheating.