Moral Disengagement Leading to Social Acceptance of Academic Misconduct: A Predictor of Behavior

Based on Bandura’s account of the mechanisms that trigger moral disengagement, the chapter explores the effect of the social acceptance of academic dishonesty on the behavior of university students. The findings emerge from a study involving students from Mexican universities, in which social acceptance of cheating and perceived peer behavior were found to be the main factors predisposing students to act dishonestly. Based on the study results and on models and approaches to teaching and learning ethics, the chapter describes cases that practitioners have implemented in Latin American universities committed to academic integrity. Analysis of the cases focuses on the approaches used to teach ethics and how these approaches may deactivate the mechanisms of moral disengagement that trigger academic dishonesty.