Examining the Differences Between Digital and Traditional Sources of Unconscious Plagiarism

Abstract

Unconscious plagiarism occurs when an individual claims a previously experienced idea as their own. Brown and Murphy (1989) were the first to investigate this, finding elevated plagiarism across their three-phase paradigm, which has since been adapted by other studies using creative generation tasks to induce plagiarism, including this one. The effects of unconscious plagiarism are believed to be due to source forgetting. Additionally, technology may adversely affect information individuals are exposed to on digital devices, making unconscious plagiarism more likely. Here we had an individual and a partner generate a response to a writing prompt either on a computer or by hand. They returned one week later to recall their response, generate a new one, and take a source memory test. We predicted that individuals would plagiarize and misattribute the source of their own or others’ ideas when using a computer than by hand. Results showed individuals plagiarized more during the generate new phase than recall-own. Specifically, individuals committed more self-plagiarisms during generate new and intruded more new ideas during recall-own. However, these plagiarisms did not statistically differ between conditions. Moreover, those responding on a computer correctly identified the source of their own ideas, whereas those responding by hand misattributed their partner’s ideas as their own. Finally, those responding on a computer, but not by hand, were marginally more likely to false alarm by misidentifying new ideas as their partner’s or their own. Collectively, these findings further substantiate that unconscious plagiarism is best explained by a source monitoring account.