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arXiv · 2610.05579

When Does It Become Cheating? Exploring the Roles of Self-Efficacy and the Impostor Phenomenon in Computing Students' Perceptions of Academic Dishonesty

Chandler C. Payne·Jhonathan Sora-Cardenas·Olufisayo Omojokun·Pedro Guillermo Feijóo-García
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Abstract

Academic dishonesty is an urgent problem in computer science (CS) education, compounded by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the prevalence of online learning in a post-COVID world. Self-efficacy and the impostor phenomenon are psychological constructs linked to academic dishonesty, yet little research has examined how they relate to how students perceive it. This study investigates the interplay between the impostor phenomenon, self-efficacy, and CS students' perceptions of academic integrity, in a context where online learning and AI agents have become commonplace. We conducted an online, asynchronous survey of undergraduate students (n = 443) in introductory to mid-level computing courses at a large Southeastern U.S. university. The survey collected measures of self-efficacy, responses to 13 potential cheating scenarios, the impostor phenomenon (Clance Impostor Phenomenon Scale), and demographic information. We observed a significant negative correlation between self-efficacy and the impostor phenomenon, and a positive correlation between the impostor phenomenon and judging an AI-related scenario as serious cheating. The impostor phenomenon was also correlated with perceived course dedication and prior teaching assistant (TA) experience, whereas self-efficacy was correlated with ethnicity. These findings highlight the need to better understand students' perceptions of AI and to keep the impostor phenomenon present in conversations about academic integrity in higher education scenarios.

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Chandler C. Payne, Jhonathan Sora-Cardenas, Olufisayo Omojokun, Pedro Guillermo Feijóo-García. 2026-10-04. When Does It Become Cheating? Exploring the Roles of Self-Efficacy and the Impostor Phenomenon in Computing Students' Perceptions of Academic Dishonesty. https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.05579

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