Autonomy and Academic Dishonesty Among Researchers: The Moderating Role of Trust in ChatGPT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55737/rl.2025.41188Keywords:
Autonomy, Academic Dishonesty, Trust in ChatGPT, ResearchersAbstract
Use of AI in academics is a highly controversial issue in the education sphere. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) that offers numerous advantages, such as increased student engagement, collaboration and accessibility. Nevertheless, it questions the issue of academic dishonesty. However, we are yet to learn much about the impact of trust in ChatGPT in academic integrity and autonomy. This paper was therefore part of the research to explore the connection between autonomy, academic dishonesty and trust on ChatGPT in scholars. The studies employed quantitative designs to come up with a comprehensive view of these interdependent factors. Four hundred undergraduate, master and PhD level researchers at multiple universities in Rawalpindi-Islamabad were approached to fill in a well-constructed questionnaire. As predicted, that individuals with greater autonomy would rely less on ChatGPT, resulting in lower trust in the system and a lower risk of engaging in academic dishonesty. The findings supported the notion, indicating a significant negative relationship between autonomy and academic dishonesty. This shows that persons with greater autonomy are less likely to engage in academic dishonesty, while placing more trust on ChatGPT more likely result in ethical misconduct in academia. The outcomes have noteworthy implications for academics, highlighting the need to develop morals and ethics in researchers. This can enable institutions to produce ethically sound professionals who benefit the community.
References
Abdaoui, M. (2018). Deterring Plagiarism in Higher Education : A model of integrity and autonomy in academic research. مجلة آفاق علمية, 374. https://doi.org/10.35554/1697-000-016-020
Akbulut, Y., Şendağ, S., Birinci, G., Kılıçer, K., Şahin, M. C., & Odabaşı, H. F. (2008). Exploring the types and reasons of Internet-triggered academic dishonesty among Turkish undergraduate students: Development of Internet-Triggered Academic Dishonesty Scale (ITADS). Computers & Education, 51(1), 463–473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2007.06.003
Bei, E., Mavroidis, I., & Giossos, Y. (2020). Development of a Scale for Measuring the Learner Autonomy of Distance Education Students. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 22(2), 133–144. https://doi.org/10.2478/eurodl-2019-0015
Bolin, A. U. (2004). Self-Control, Perceived Opportunity, and Attitudes as Predictors of Academic Dishonesty. The Journal of Psychology, 138(2), 101–114. https://doi.org/10.3200/jrlp.138.2.101-114
Borhani, K., Beck, B., & Haggard, P. (2017). Choosing, doing, and controlling: Implicit sense of agency over somatosensory events. Psychological Science, 28, 882–893. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617697693
Brown, A., et al. (2016). Disciplinary differences in undergraduate plagiarism rates: A single-site study. Journal of Academic Integrity, 14(2), 67-82.
Crown, D. F., & Spiller, M. S. (1998b). Learning from the Literature on Collegiate Cheating: A Review of Empirical Research. Journal of Business Ethics, 18(2), 229–246. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1017903001888
D’Agostino, S. (2023). Academics work to detect ChatGPT and other AI writing. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/01/20/academics-work-detect-chatgpt-and-other-ai-writing
Deng, J., & Lin, Y. (2023). The Benefits and Challenges of ChatGPT: An Overview. Frontiers in Computing and Intelligent Systems, 2(2), 81–83. https://doi.org/10.54097/fcis.v2i2.4465
Dowling, M., & Lucey, B. (2023). ChatGPT for (Finance) research: The Bananarama Conjecture. Finance Research Letters, 53, 103662. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2023.103662
Ellahi, A., Mushtaq, R., & Bashir Khan, M. (2013). Multi campus investigation of academic dishonesty in higher education of Pakistan. International Journal of Educational Management, 27(6), 647–666. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem-03-2012-0039
Faucher, D., & Caves, S. (2009). Academic dishonesty: Innovative cheating techniques and the detection and prevention of them. Teaching and Learning in Nursing, 4(2), 37–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.teln.2008.09.003
Gao, C. A., Howard, F. M., Markov, N. S., Dyer, E. C., Ramesh, S., Luo, Y., & Pearson, A. T. (2022). Comparing scientific abstracts generated by ChatGPT to original abstracts using an artificial intelligence output detector, plagiarism detector, and blinded human reviewers. BioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.23.521610
Guerrero-Dib, J. G., Portales, L., & Heredia-Escorza, Y. (2020). Impact of academic integrity on workplace ethical behaviour. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-020-0051-3
Gulati, S., Sousa, S., & Lamas, D. (2019). Design, development and evaluation of a human-computer trust scale. Behaviour & Information Technology, 38(10), 1004-1015. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2019.1656779
Hegner, S. M., Beldad, A. D., & Brunswick, G. J. (2019). In automatic we trust: Investigating the impact of trust, control, personality characteristics, and extrinsic and intrinsic motivations on the acceptance of autonomous vehicles. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 35(19), 1769-1780. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2019.1572353
Hisan, U. K., & Amri, M. M. (2022). Artificial Intelligence for Human Life: A Critical Opinion from Medical Bioethics Perspective – Part I. Journal of Public Health Sciences, 1(02), 100–111. https://doi.org/10.56741/jphs.v1i02.214
Ipek, Z. H., Gozum, A. C., Papadakis, S., & Kallogianakis, M. (2023). Educational applications of the ChatGPT AI system: System atic review research. Educational Process: International Journal, 12(3), 26–55. https://doi.org/10.22521/edupij.2023.123.2
Irfan, A., Abbas, N., Shahid, M. S., Ashraf, J., & Asif, A. (2025). Smartphone addiction and academic procrastination in university students: psychological wellbeing as a moderator. Qualitative Research Journal for Social Studies, 2(2), 973-983. https://doi.org/10.63878/qrjs133
Jones, S. E., & Vigil, T. R. (2014). Protecting student privacy and promoting academic integrity in the online environment. College Teaching, 62(4), 128-136.
Khan, P., Shahid, M. S., & Majid, H. A. (2024). Mediating role of online social connectedness in smartphone addiction and online relationship among young adults. Gomal University Journal of Research, 40(3), 327-336. https://doi.org/10.51380/gujr-40-03-05
Khan, U. P. (2018). Academic dishonesty: A menace to the education system. Daily Times. https://dailytimes.com.pk/309482/academic-dishonesty-a-menace-to-the-education-system/
Krou, M. R., Fong, C. J., & Hoff, M. A. (2021). Achievement motivation and academic dishonesty: A meta-analytic investigation. Educational Psychology Review, 33(2), 427–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09557-7
Kusuma, A. N. (2022a). The state of self-regulated learning and academic dishonesty of undergraduate students during online learning. Psychological Research and Intervention, 5(1), 19–27. https://doi.org/10.21831/pri.v5i1.49441
Levine, J., & Pazdernik, V. (2018). Evaluation of a four-prong anti-plagiarism program and the incidence of plagiarism: a five-year retrospective study. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(7), 1094–1105. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1434127
Maring, J., Vail, M., Wright, K. A., Tebbenhoff, B., Canova, K., & Costello, E. (2018). Attitudes toward academic dishonesty in health profession students. Journal of Allied Health, 47(4), e97–e103.
Mâţă, L., & Poenaru, A. G. (2020). Rules for the use of information technology in the code of ethics in higher education. In The International Scientific Conference eLearning and Software for Education (Vol. 1, pp. 537-544). " Carol I" National Defence University.
McCabe, D. L., & Treviño, L. K. (1993). Academic dishonesty: honor codes and other contextual influences. The Journal of Higher Education, 64(5), 522. https://doi.org/10.2307/2959991
McCabe, D. L., & Treviño, L. K. (1997). Individual and Contextual Influences on Academic Dishonesty: a multicampus investigation. Research in Higher Education, 38(3), 379–396. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1024954224675
McCabe, D. L., Trevino, L. K., & Butterfield, K. D. (2001). Cheating in academic institutions: A decade of research. Ethics & Behavior, 11(3), 219–232. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327019eb1103_2
McKnight, D. H., & Chervany, N. L. (2001). Trust and distrust definitions: One bite at a time. In Trust in Cyber-societies (pp. 27–54). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-45547-7_3
Motloba, P. D. (2018). Understanding of the principle of Autonomy (Part 1). South African Dental Journal, 73(6). https://doi.org/10.17159/2519-0105/2018/v73no5a7
Müller, V. C. (2020). Ethics of artificial intelligence and robotics. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Nazir, M. S., & Aslam, M. S. (2009, November). On the relationship of demography and academically dishonest behaviors of students. In 2nd COMSATS International Business Research Conference, Lahore, Pakistan.
Nazir, M. S., Aslam, M. S., & Nawaz, M. M. (2011). Can Demography Predict Academically Dishonest Behaviors of Students? A Case of Pakistan. International Education Studies, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v4n2p208
Roth, G., & Assor, A. (2012). The costs of parental pressure to express emotions: Conditional regard and autonomy support as predictors of emotion regulation and intimacy. Journal of Adolescence, 35(4), 799–808. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.11.005
Rudolph, J., Tan, S., & Tan, S. (2023). ChatGPT: Bullshit spewer or the end of traditional assessments in higher education? Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching, 6(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2023.6.1.9
Schraw, G., Olafson, L., Kuch, F., Lehman, T., Lehman, S., & McCrudden, M. T. (2007). Interest and academic cheating. In Psychology of academic cheating (pp. 59-77). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012372541-7/50005-X
Shahid, M. S., Bashir, S., & Fatima, S. (2024). Social media addiction and aggression in Pakistani young adults: Social connectedness as a moderator. Journal of Professional & Applied Psychology, 5(3), 424-433. https://doi.org/10.52053/jpap.v5i3.308
Shahid, M. S., Naeem, S., & Naeem, A. (2026). Problematic Social Media Use and Psychological Distress: The Mediating Role of Upward Social Comparison. Qlantic Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 7(1), 293-299. https://doi.org/10.55737/qjssh.vii-i.26485
Shen, Y., Heacock, L., Elias, J., Hentel, K. D., Reig, B., Shih, G., & Moy, L. (2023). ChatGPT and other large language models are double-edged swords. Radiology, 230163. https://doi.org/10.1148/radiol.230163
Soenens, B., & Vansteenkiste, M. (2005). Antecedents and Outcomes of Self-Determination in 3 Life Domains: The Role of Parents’ and Teachers’ Autonomy Support. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 34(6), 589–604. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-005-8948-y
Varelius, J. (2006). The value of autonomy in medical ethics. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 9(3), 377–388. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-006-9000-z
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) -1 Sehrish Naseem, Dr. Aftab Hussain
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
