COGNITIVE-MOTIVATIONAL MECHANISMS OF ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: MORAL DISENGAGEMENT AND NEUTRALIZATION AS MEDIATORS BETWEEN PERSONALITY DISPOSITIONS AND LYING BEHAVIOR

Abstract

Research on academic dishonesty has established robust links between personality dispositions and dishonest behavior, yet the cognitive-motivational processes that translate stable dispositions into situational lying remain underspecified in a unified framework. This paper proposes an integrative account of two complementary self-regulatory mechanisms -moral disengagement (Bandura, 1990, 1999) and neutralization techniques (Sykes & Matza, 1957) -as mediators linking personality-level predictors (values, moral identity, honesty-humility) to a differentiated, function-based model of academic lying (instrumental, self-protective, prosocial, and relational functions). Drawing on longitudinal evidence of a reciprocal, self-reinforcing relationship between moral disengagement and dishonest conduct (Fida et al., 2018) and on qualitative evidence that neutralization techniques are more readily invoked to excuse others' misconduct than one's own (Ligi & Trasberg, 2014), we argue that the two mechanisms are not interchangeable but map onto distinct functional pathways: disengagement directed at instructors and neutralization through blame attribution primarily license instrumental and self-protective lying, whereas disengagement directed at peers and neutralization through appeal to higher loyalties license prosocial and relational lying. The paper outlines testable hypotheses for this differential-mediation model and discusses its implications for designing function-specific, rather than uniform, academic integrity interventions.