A social-cognitive approach to online game cheating

•The results support a social cognitive model of game cheating behavior.•Online game cheating behavior is influenced by external and self-generated factors.•Social environment, attitude and outcome evaluation influence cheating behavior.•Cheating self-efficacy does not affect the behavior of game cheating.•There is dynamic interplay among personal factors, social environment and behavior.

Drawing upon social cognitive theory, the present study constructed a conceptual model to provide an in-depth understanding of the key psychosocial factors shaping the cheating behavior in online multiplayer games. An online survey approach and structural equation modeling were adopted to investigate the hypothesized relationships and to assess the fitness of the model. The findings of this study provided support for the research model and the social cognitive theory perspective on game cheating behavior. The cheating behavior was found to be influenced by both external and self-generated factors. Specifically, individual gamers’ social environment (peer influence), their own attitude towards game cheating, and evaluation of cheating outcomes played an important role in shaping this problematic behavior in online games. Game cheating self-efficacy was interestingly found to be an insignificant factor for the game cheating behavior. The study fills a gap in the current literature on games and cheating, specifically on the social cognitive mechanisms of the cheating behavior in online multiplayer games.