Unconscious plagiarism rates were examined within the context of self-evaluation maintenance theory. Participants from the undergraduate program at the University of Georgia brought in a dating partner of at least four months. The dating partners gave one another advice for either two highly relevant problems or two problems of low relevance as defined by self-expertise and personal importance. The participants rated the advice statements on helpfulness, comfort, and elicited feelings. Next, the participants were asked to give ideas for solutions to the problems and were subsequently asked where each idea came from, the partner or the self. Plagiarism was evident in each condition, low and high relevance, but receiving advice in the highly relevant area was found to elicit significantly more inadvertent plagiarism. Implications and possible reasons for the discrepancy are discussed.
