Studies Find Cheaters Overinflate 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...