Report: Young people are lying, cheating, and stealing less these days

The 2012 “Report Card on the Ethics of American Youth” suggests that young people’s morals have improved in recent years. The survey, conducted every two years by the Los Angeles-based Josephson Institute of Ethics, found that 99 percent of the 23,000 high school students sampled say they believe “it is very important to have good moral character.”

The results found 51 percent of students in 2012 admitted they cheated on an exam in the past year, which is down from 59 percent in 2010. The percentage of students admitting they’ve copied another’s homework dropped by two points in the past couple years. …

The survey also suggest there are fewer Pinocchios: Fifty-five percent of students in 2012 say they’ve lied to a teacher in the past year about something significant, compared with 61 percent in 2010.

Students admitting they stole something from a store in the past year fell seven percentage points in the last two years, to 20 percent in 2012.