Why Students Do Not Engage in Contract Cheating

In short

Why do most students not pay others to complete their assessments? In a survey of 1291 students, the authors report that wanting to learn and personal morals were the reasons most endorsed.

What it looked at

A survey of 1291 university students about their reasons for not using contract cheating, alongside measures of self-control, grit and darker personality traits. The authors link these traits to the reasons given, controlling for gender.

What it means for teaching

Assessment design and policy that support motivation to learn and limit opportunity may help, the authors propose, though the evidence is a self-report survey.

Limits

Self-report, so it records what students said about their reasons rather than what they did. The abstract does not say which institutions or countries the students came from.

Cited 101 times by other papers, as counted by OpenAlex in November 2026. A count measures attention, not quality.