Survey: M.B.A. students more likely to cheat

The Philadephia Inquirer reports:

When it comes to cheating in graduate school, a new study finds that M.B.A. students are the champs.

A survey of 5,331 students at 32 graduate schools in the United States and Canada found an "alarming" amount of cheating across disciplines, but more among the nation's future business leaders. Fifty-six percent of graduate business students admitted they had cheated at least once in the last year, compared with 47 percent of non-business students.

The students, who were surveyed between 2002 and 2004, told researchers from Pennsylvania State, Rutgers and Washington State Universities that the most important reason for cheating was that they thought that other students were doing it.

"People tend to do what they think other people are doing," said Linda Klebe Trevino, one of the researchers and a professor of organizational behavior at Penn State's Smeal College of Business. "The fact that other people are doing it creates an environment where this is normative."

Some of these people are going to make fine politicians.