Cognitive morality and cheating behavior in religious and secular school children

Sixth-grade pupils from secular public (A = 68) and religious public (A = 57) schools were compared with regard to cognitive morality and actual moral behavior. The results show that the religious subjects exhibited a higher level of moral reasoning than the secular group and tended to resist temptation more on a paper and pencil test, but less on a test of actual cheating behavior. The results also show low correlation among the various measures of moral cognition and moral behavior.