1. The objective of
this research is to
evaluate the
impact that
societal pressures
and beliefs have
along with the
negative stigma
attached to
snitching in a high
school classroom.
The stigma of “snitches get stitches” and the
belittling of “tattletales” and informers is
prevalent throughout society. The objective of
this research is to evaluate the impact of
societal pressures and beliefs has along with
the negative stigma attached with snitching in a
live cheating scenario in a high school
classroom. The experimental procedure
consisted of a controlled environment, in a high
school classroom, with an obvious cheating
scenario, measuring the immediate response
to the cheating, and a follow up questionnaire
determining the amount of students who
observed the cheating simulation in order to
compare the ratio to those who reported and
those who did not and also their reasoning for
their decision. An anonymous survey was later
implemented in order to measure the
prevalence of the negative stigma attached in
the high school community/atmosphere and
also to measure the societal influences on
decisions. Ultimately, while students did not
directly agree with the stigma of “snitches get
stitches” there was a sharp increase in those
who believed they would be belittled by their
peers if they were to inform, which was present
in both the survey responses and the
experiment’s data. In conclusion, in high school
classroom settings, informing is scarcely
present, due to a heightened sense of social
deterioration and belittling attached with
snitching and informing.
The Snitching Stigma
 Initially, there were no reports to the teacher of any cheating. The
teacher added a new element by informing the class that everyone
would have to retake the test. This prompted the following responses:
 Of the classes chosen for the experiment, eleven of the sixty-
three students reported the alleged/designated cheater.
**Some students had to be eliminated from the experiment
due to them being aware of the experiment and its intended
purpose.**
 Of the eleven students who reported, four were boys and
seven were girls, displaying the quantitative difference
between each gender and their likelihood to report.
 The questionnaire results indicated that the most significant reason
students chose not to report a cheater was “I didn’t want to be
labeled as a ‘tattletale’ or ‘snitch’ by my peers”.
Through both this experiment and survey, I have concluded that
while there appears to be a combined neutral view towards the
prevalence of the stigma of “snitches get stitches”, students are
still hesitant towards the act of reporting and informing on their
classmates out of fear of being ostracized and belittled by their
peers. Therefore, my hypothesis was successful. However, I
also discovered that students are ultimately unconcerned with
the act of cheating until its actions negatively affect them.
Experiment:
1. Select a teacher who agreed to participate in cheating scenario with
his/her class.
2.The selected teacher then proceeds to designate a student in each
class on a test day to cheat, in this experiment, by having the supposed
answer sheet to the test with them.
3.**However, we ran into a problem because it appeared that not many
students seemed to notice the designated cheater due to being focused
on the test. Therefore, the designated cheater was told to ask students
outside of class if they would like the answers to the test since they had
the teacher’s answer sheet. – In another experimental group
(classroom) we were able to continue the experiment without any
outside reinforcements of asking students outside of class.
4.The teacher would later tell the class that he/she has lost the answer
sheet and asked the students if they knew of its whereabouts.
5.The teacher then announced that unless the cheater came forth/was
discovered, the test must be retaken by all of the classes.
6.A couple days later, the premade questionnaire would be administered
to each class, indirectly discovering who witnessed the cheating and
why they chose to or chose not to report.
7.Two days after the questionnaire was administered, the truth was
revealed about the cheater and the experiment.
8.**For any students who came forth, the teacher recorded their gender
and how many people there were, total.
Survey:
Originally, the “Snitching Stigma” survey was to be administered when
experimenting was complete. However, due to an unexpected increase
in the completion time with the experiment, the survey was released
under another student’s name (who volunteered) in order to avoid
confounding with the experiment’s results.
As a special note, one unanticipated side effect of the
experiment was that I became a witness when peers shared with
me their thoughts. I was also in the classroom when one student
was reporting on the cheater, giving me an “eye-witness”
account of the comments and emotions. There were a few
common comments: “Everyone cheats.” and “There is an art to
cheating and you shouldn’t aim to get a 100.”. The emotional
impact on the reporter (nervousness) and lastly an observed
tendency to correlate the cheating behavior to other perceived
weak personality traits.
The stigma of “snitches get stitches” and the belittling of
“tattletales” and informers is prevalent throughout society. There
is a constant battle between the act of snitching/informing and
sacrificing one’s own personal status and the act of remaining
quiet and sacrificing the public’s well-being. In order to fully
comprehend the impact that the snitching stigma has
implemented on society throughout the years, I focused on
understanding the impact of perceived social consequences on
the likelihood for students in a classroom to report observed
cheating behaviors. Through both cheating scenarios in
classrooms and surveys, I will use this data to measure the
prevalence and societal limitations within and surrounding the
snitching stigma.
INTRODUCTION
PROCEDURE
Thank you to Will Culicerto for enduring a lot of social pressure
and awkward situations and remaining true to his code of
silence. Also a big thank you to Gwendalyn Turner for allowing
me to release the survey in her name to avoid suspicion. Thank
you to Mr. Maciel for being such a great supporter in the process
and being so quick on your feet. And finally, a huge thank you to
Ms. Carr for helping me develop the project and believing in me
all the way.
SIDE NOTE
CONCLUSIONS
EXPERIMENT RESULTS
SPECIAL THANKS
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE
 The difference between the amount of surveyors who have cheated
versus those who have turned someone in for cheating is significant.
 Surveyors who reported ‘Yes’ to reporting a cheater who received a
worse grade were significantly fewer than those who reported ‘Yes’ to
reporting a cheater who received the same grade or a higher grade.
 There is a seemingly equal balance between surveyors who agree and
disagree with the statement “snitches get stitches”, yet the amount of
surveyors who believe they would be shunned by their classmates for
snitching is over three times that of those who believe they would not.
SURVEY RESULTS
EXTENSIONS
If I had more time I would have definitely liked to have had more
experimental groups and a greater time span between the
cheating scenario, questionnaire, and the survey. I would also like
to try and work with different cheating tactics, such as using a
phone, using search engines on an online test, looking off of the
student nearest to you, etc. I would also like to see how to people
react to different responses, such as if a coach asked them if
someone cheated versus a teacher asking, etc.