For decades, educators and researchers have sought to understand why students cheat. Prior studies relied on self-reporting or overlooked students’ reasoning, capture students’ underlying motivations, which are essential to understanding and preventing cheating. Our paper aims to fill these gaps. Across two studies, we examined (1) what students’ social experiences surrounding academic integrity look like, and (2) how social messages might influence students’ decisions to cheat. In Study 1, we gathered naturalistic data from high schools across California using classroom observations (N = 1208 reports) and brief anonymous interviews (N = 660 interviews). Preliminary analyses of over 825 observed statements or conversations from students suggest that peer interactions around cheating are largely positive (69%) or ambiguous (24%). Teacher statements and interactions, on the other hand, were largely negative (74% of 383 statements or conversations). This shows student interactions with their peers are more pro-cheating, while their interactions with teachers are more anti-cheating. In Study 2, which is ongoing, we will test how manipulating common messages gathered from Study 1 would influence student responses in a graded quiz setting. Teachers will deliver different messages to classes (punitive: “Please don’t cheat, because you’ll get a zero and get sent to the principal’s office,” nurturing: “Please don’t cheat, because then I won’t know what material you don’t understand, and I can’t help you learn,” and a control condition: “Please don’t cheat”) and give students an opportunity to cheat on a quiz. We hypothesize that punitive reasoning will discourage cheating more compared to nurturing reasoning and the control condition. Our research makes important advancements in the field of moral development by shedding light on students’ social experiences surrounding cheating and understanding their effect on students’ tendencies to cheat.