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SALT LAKE CITY — A new survey shows high school students may be a bit more honest and ethical now than in recent years.
The study by the Josephson Institute of Ethics finds the portion of high school students who admit to cheating, lying or stealing dropped in 2012 for the first time in a decade.
The survey is "a pretty good sign that things may be turning around," said Michael Josephson, the founder and president of the institute. "I'm quite optimistic this is the beginning of a downward trend."
The study explored three areas:
- Cheating: In 2010, 59 percent of students admitted they had cheated on an exam in the past year; in 2012 that rate dropped to 51 percent. Also, students who admitted they copied another's homework dropped 2 percent.
- Lying: Students who said they lied to a teacher in the past year about something significant dropped from 61 percent in 2010 to 55 percent in 2012. Those who lied to their parents about something significant also dropped from 80 percent to 76 percent.
- Stealing: In 2010, 27 percent of the students said they had stolen something from a store in the past year. In 2012 that number dropped to 20 percent.
The study also suggests "boys are much more likely to harbor negative attitudes and engage in dishonest conduct than girls."
The Josephson Institute is a Los Angeles based nonprofit that sponsors a character education program and has issued reports on the ethics of American high school students since 1992. It says more than 23,000 students across the U.S. participated in the 2012 survey.
