Can Professors Know If You Cheat Or Plagiarize?

It turns out that checking for plagiarism is quite easy given how the internet works, and human behavior.

First of all, it appears to plagiarizing is quite common. When I type, “how do professors…” plagiarizing is top of the list.

If you are plagiarizing someone’s work, it generally means that you are either being lazy or you are resource constrained. You are unlikely to do an elaborate scheme to protect yourself from being detected.

Why do people plagiarize in such a simple manner. They are doing a cost benefit analysis. They think what is the benefit I will get if I cheat the system compared to the probability of getting caught and the cost of getting caught. They generally believe they will not get caught, even if the penalty is quite high.

Those that do cheat and get away with it consistently, usually have some elaborate scheme that consumes more resources than it does to do the work.

What is the lesson of thinking about plagiarizing? Don’t cheat as the cost generally outweighs the benefit of actually doing your work. You can usually get the work done very quickly if you just sit down and do the work.

Check out:

What Happens When You Cheat On An Exam At University?

I Am So Proud Of You Being A PhD, Academic, Or Scholar.

PhD Guilt: Feeling Guilty As A Professor When Not Doing Research / Work

Returning To Become A Tenure-Track Professor After Taking Time Off

Hating Grad School: Feeling Not Smart Enough For Grad School

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David Maslach is a research professor of entrepreneurship, innovation, and business strategy, I discuss topics, such as behavioral science, strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and apply these to my new peer proofreading and editing platform. Topics include the sharing economy, altruism, investing in technology, starting a business, and bounded rationality. My favorite videos pertain to incentives, goal setting, and learning from failure to drive behaviors such as weight loss, stopping telemarketers, creating novel technologies, and creating new movements.

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