Examining the protective effect of heart rate in the social adversity and academic dishonesty relationship

• Main Author: Siah, Darren Joon Kiat
• Other Authors: Olivia Choy
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Social sciences::Psychology
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/140939
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Although social adversity and low resting heart rate have been linked to antisocial behavior, little is known about the associations between social adversity or heart rate and academic dishonesty specifically. Even less is known about whether resting heart rate can moderate the social adversity – academic dishonesty relationship. The current study builds upon a prior study that investigated the low resting heart rate – academic dishonesty relationship which was conducted in the United States. Specifically, this paper investigates whether resting heart rate moderates the social adversity – academic dishonesty relationship in a community sample of 46 healthy adults. Social adversity and general dishonesty scores were derived based on participants’ responses to a self-report demographic survey and crime questionnaire. Results from a regression analysis with an interaction term of heart rate x social adversity indicated that higher resting heart rates significantly attenuated the relationship between social adversity and academic dishonesty (p<0.01) even when controlling for several covariates. This indicates that a biological factor, heart rate, has the potential to protect against one of the most well-known social risk factors for crime and antisocial behavior and suggests that more time and research should be devoted to the exploration of the role of biological factors in antisocial behavior.