According to several experts and academics, cheating (otherwise known as “academic dishonesty") is on the rise among students, here in the U.S. but also all around the world. When it comes to graduate school, which students would you guess are the most likely to cheat? The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that according to a new study, business school (MBA) students are the most likely to cheat:

A survey of 5,331 students at 32 graduate schools in the United States and Canada found an “alarming” amount of cheating across disciplines, but more among the nation’s future business leaders. Fifty-six percent of graduate business students admitted they had cheated at least once in the last year, compared with 47 percent of non-business students. The students, who were surveyed between 2002 and 2004, told researchers . . . that the most important reason for cheating was that they thought that other students were doing it. . . .

The results come amid a growing list of corporate ethics scandals, including faulty accounting to boost earnings, and, more recently, the backdating of stock options grants, a tactic that makes executive pay even more lucrative. While there is no proof that students who would cheat on a test might later cheat stockholders, the researchers said it made sense that people who would bend one rule might bend another. . . .

Why business students would cheat more than others is a matter of conjecture. Trevino said it might be that students who were drawn to business school were more self-interested or bottom-line-oriented. Some studies also suggest that business school, with its emphasis on the free market and maximization of shareholder value, changes student attitudes. . . . The “more important and more discouraging” explanation he hears from students is that “they’re just emulating the behavior they see out in the business world.” There, they say, “it doesn’t matter how you get it done. The key thing is to get it done.”

Isn’t that reassuring -- that our future business leaders increasingly think that cheating and dishonesty is the norm and that it’s no big deal. Where are they getting these ideas? From the same kinds of people that they are likely to work for once they graduate. In other words, what we have here is a self-perpetuating cycle where the culture of dishonesty gets “passed down” from one generation of business leaders to another.

In all fairness, there are plenty of other students, graduate and undergraduate, from all different disciplines and majors who cheat, not just business school students. However, I think we as a society should be pretty alarmed that the people who are likely to be running the richest, most powerful corporations in the world are apparently also the ones who are most likely to be dishonest.