An investigatory study into students’ attitudes towards the piracy of digital material

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate students’ attitudes relating to favourableness/ unfavourableness towards digital piracy, specifically with regard to gender differences, age differences, levels of self efficacy, machiavellianism and subjective norms. This was a crosssectional survey design combined with a correlational study in which 102 participants from Psychology classes in Dublin Business School were surveyed with three questionnaires: the Digital Piracy Scale, the General Self Efficacy Scale and the MACH-IV Scale. The findings provided three significant results – i) males have a more favourable attitude over females; ii) younger students have a more favourable attitude over older students and iii) subjective norms and attitudes were found to have an existing correlation; no significant results were found with self-efficacy and machiavellianism. Author keywords: attitudes, digital piracy, machiavellianism, subjective norms, self efficacy