The Relationships of Communication Action and Social Capital with Lying Tendencies among Students
Journal Title: Journal of Applied Sociology - Year 2022, Vol 33, Issue 1
Abstract
Introduction: Lying is a false and deliberate statement to mislead another person and try to make him/her believe it. There are all kinds of lies among students, from everyday compliments to dissertation writing. In Iran, research on the Iranian people’s characteristic of lying is in the first place. In this research, the question of what the roles of communication action and social capital in Iranian students’ tendency to lie are was addressed. Accordingly, the theories of Habermas, Weber, Simmel, etc. and those of Putnam and Bourdieu were discussed in the fields of communication action and social capital, respectively. Materials & Methods: This research was of an applied survey. The statistical population included 16,632 students studying in the Islamic Azad University, Tabriz branch, in 2019. Using Cochran's formula, 375 students were selected as the statistical sample. A stratified sampling method was applied. SPSS and Amos software was utilized for data analysis. The data were collected through researcher-made questionnaires, the formal validity (as high as 0.94) and reliability (higher than 0.7) of which were ensured by using the teachers’ judgments and Cronbach's alpha, respectively. After preparing the indicators, a preliminary study of 30 students was conducted. The social capital and communication action questionnaires of 27 and 14 questions were made based on a 5-point Likert scale, respectively. The questions related to lying tendency were extracted from the Questionnaires prepared by Hart et al. (2019). To measure this variable, 45 questions were used based on the 7-point Likert scale. Discussion of Results & Conclusions: In this study, there was a significant inverse relationship between communication action and the students' tendencies to lie. The higher the students' communication skills were, the less they intended to lie Khodamoradi (1397). The results of the correlation between the variables of lying tendency and the students’ communication action (-0.119) and social capital (-0.179) showed that there was a significant inverse relationship between the mentioned variables. Independent means of the t-test were used to compare the relationships of the students’ lying tendencies with their communication action and social capital based on their genders. The results revealed that the tendency to lie was not different among them, but their communication actions were different based on gender; the male students had a stronger communication action than the female students (T=2.916, SIG=0.0.004). Also, no significant difference was observed between lying tendency and social capital based on gender (T=0.074, SIG=0.941). Path analysis was used to investigate the effects of social capital and communication action on lying tendency. Predictor variables were applied to estimate the parameters obtained from the relationships. To determine the fit of the proposed model with the data, a combination of fit indices (X2=120.87, df=56, CFI=0.778, GFI=0/950, and RMSEA=0.056) was utilized and a suitable model was achieved. Regarding the interaction of communication action with social capital and their roles in Iranian students’ tendencies to lie, it can be said that the act of communication has been used in the analyses related to the discussion of social capital. In fact, social capital researchers have placed the act of communication at the heart of their discourses on social capital. Different forms of social capital affect beliefs and believers and their trust behaviors, as well as communication action that leads to individuals’ better performance. If we want to spread honesty and truthfulness among students, we must say that saying such things as "Do not lie and be honest!" will not work although advice is useful. In the current situation, we expect honesty from institutions and should develop a trusting relationship in the society.
Authors and Affiliations
Rogaye Velayati Ph. D Student in Sociology, Department of Social Sciences, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz Branch, Tabriz, Iran velayati90@yahoo. com Davood Ebrahimpoor* Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran ebrahimpoord@iaut. ac. ir Mohammad Baqer Alizadeh Aghdam Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran m. alizadeh@tabrizu. ac. ir Mohammad Abbaszadeh Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran m-abbaszadeh@tabrizu. ac. ir
Keywords
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- EP ID EP704790
- DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.22108/jas.2021.128014.2081
- Views 109
- Downloads 0
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