Survey Finds Less Cheating in High Schools

A new survey from the Josephson Institute of Ethics finds that the portion of high school students who admit to cheating, lying or stealing dropped in 2012 for the first time in a decade, the Religion News Service reports. The reasons aren't totally known, but the results of the poll of 23,000 high school students are "a pretty good sign that things may be turning around," said Michael Josephson, founder and president of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization. Among the highlights from the survey: The number of students who said they lied to a teacher in the past year about something significant plunged from 59 percent in 2010 to 51 percent in 2012, and the number of students who said they had stolen from a store fell from 27 percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2010. Though the survey suggested overall improvement, it found that boys are more likely than girls to engage in dishonest conduct: 45 percent of boys said they believe "a person has to lie and cheat at least occasionally in order to succeed," compared with 28 percent of girls.