| This article aims to evaluate the salience of the perception of the beliefs and behavior of peers as a predictor of students' own beliefs and behaviors regarding academic dishonesty. Particular attention is paid to discerning the relative predictive power of different peers or peer groups (e.g. the average student, your best friend, etc.). Specifically this study offers support for the following conclusions (especially in regards to academic dishonesty): students over-perceive their peers' delinquency; these misperceptions increase as social distance increases; there is a positive correlation between one's perception of his peers' delinquent behavior and one's own; and the strength of this correlation generally lessens as the social distance of the peer group being referenced increases. |
