Cheating is a dishonest act that intentionally misleads or betrays the rules of a given group or society. This can be damaging and disruptive. The following example of cheating involved several students at the University of Virginia.

According to David Mills, chairman of the economics department, several first-year graduate students discovered an online answer key for their economics textbook and used it without the professor’s permission. As a result, those students caught cheating were either expelled from the university or they voluntarily withdrew, losing their standing at the university. Because of the large number of students expelled or withdrawn, the first year economics program suffered from its loss of students.