Desirable difficulties like tests were often shown to increase long-term learning. However, due to the complexity and difficulty of such tasks, they are also argued to result in negative consequences like stress, anxiety, pressure, frustration, or negative evaluations. In other studies, such consequences were, in turn, often found to increase…

Using self-reported academic cheating from the classes of 1959 through 2002 at the three major United States military service academies (Air Force, Army, and Navy), we measure how peer cheating influences individual cheating behavior. We find higher levels of peer cheating result in a substantially increased probability that an individual will…