The Link Between Cognitive Ability and Scholastic Cheating: A Meta-Analysis

Do less able students cheat more? Although relevant research has been published over the past eight decades, no consensus has been reached. We reviewed all studies using objective measures of both ability and cheating. A comprehensive search yielded 20 such articles, including 22 samples, that estimated the ability-cheating association. A meta-analysis yielded a clear conclusion: all associations between ability and cheating were negative with a median value of -.26. The pattern was also robust across contrived versus noncontrived cheating situations, collaborative versus noncollaborative cheating, choice of ability measures, and educational levels. The associations were somewhat lower when cheating detection methods were "high-tech" rather than traditional. Broader implications are discussed.