The importance of being honest: Correlating self-report accuracy and network centrality with academic performance

TL;DR

This study explores how self-report accuracy and social network centrality relate to academic performance among undergraduates, revealing that less accurate self-reporting correlates with lower achievement and centrality in advice networks predicts higher performance.

Contribution

It introduces the novel idea of using self-report accuracy and network centrality as indicators of academic success, controlling for various individual factors.

Findings

Lower achieving students are less accurate in self-reporting.

Higher centrality in advice networks correlates with better academic performance.

Self-report accuracy could serve as a new metric for academic assessment.

Abstract

This study investigates the correlation of self-report accuracy with academic performance. The sample was composed of 289 undergraduate students (96 senior and 193 junior) enrolled in two engineering classes. Age ranged between 22 and 24 years, with a slight over representation of male students (53%). Academic performance was calculated based on students' final grades in each class. The tendency to report inaccurate information was measured at the end of the Raven Progressive Matrices Test, by asking students to report their exact finishing times. We controlled for gender, age, personality traits, intelligence, and past academic performance. We also included measures of centrality in their friendship, advice and trust networks. Correlation and multiple regression analyses results indicate that lower achieving students were significantly less accurate in self-reporting data. We also found that being more central in the advice network was correlated with higher performance (r = .20, p < .001). The results are aligned with existing literature emphasizing the individual and relational factors associated with academic performance and, pending future studies, may be utilized to include a new metric of self-report accuracy that is not dependent on academic records.