Influence of gender, program of study and PC experience on unethical computer using behaviors of Turkish undergraduate students Yavuz Akbulut * ,O ¨ mer Uysal, Hatice Ferhan Odabasi, Abdullah Kuzu Anadolu University, Education Faculty, Computer and Instructional Technologies Education Department, 26470 Eskisehir, Turkey Received 4 December 2006; received in revised form 13 June 2007; accepted 16 June 2007 Abstract This study administered the unethical computer using behavior scale (UECUBS) developed by [Namlu, A.G., & Oda- basi, F. (2007). Unethical computer using behavior scale: A study of reliability and validity on Turkish university students. Computers and Education, 48, 205–215.] to investigate whether gender, program of study and PC experience have an impact on ethical judgments of undergraduate students regarding information and communication technologies (ICTs). The sam- ple consisted of 559 undergraduates from the Education Faculty of the most populated state university in Turkey. The results of 5 (program of study) · 2 (gender) · 2 (PC experience) between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated no significant differences among different programs of study and between high and low experienced PC users. The analysis showed significant differences between males and females. A significant interaction between the program of study and gen- der was found, which indicated that the difference between males and females did not follow a similar pattern across dif- ferent programs of study. More specifically, females’ ethical judgments were consistent across different fields while males’ judgments varied according to the field of study. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Human–computer interface; Computer ethics; Higher education; Gender; Program of study; Computer experience 1. Introduction Academic dishonesty in the current technology-rich environment is considered a critical issue for Higher Education (Underwood & Szabo, 2003). Recent studies revealed that the degree of academic dishonesty behaviors is considerably high. McCabe (2005a) studied with almost 50,000 undergraduates on more than 60 campuses in the United States and reported that 70% of undergraduates admitted some cheating. More- over, it is claimed that today’s students are more predisposed to engage in academic misdemeanors during their studies than their predecessors (Marshall & Garry, 2005; McCabe & Drinan, 1999; Park, 2003). McCabe 0360-1315/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2007.06.004 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +90 222 3350580x3519; fax: +90 222 335 0579. E-mail address: yavuzakbulut@anadolu.edu.tr (Y. Akbulut). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Computers & Education 51 (2008) 485–492 www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu