Study: Cheating overinflates academic ability

That time-honored anti-cheating mantra, "You're only hurting yourself," may be literal fact, according to new research. Emerging evidence suggests students who cheat on a test are more likely to deceive themselves into thinking they earned a high grade on their own merits, setting themselves up for future academic failure.

In four experiments detailed in the March Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the Harvard Business School and Duke University found that cheaters pay for the short-term benefits of higher scores with inflated expectations for future performance. To learn more about the results of the study, read the full article by Sarah D. Sparks at Education Week.