Drawing upon social cognitive theory, the present study constructed a conceptual model to provide an in-depth  understanding  of  the cheating behavior     in online    multiplayer games. An online survey approach and structural equation modeling were adopted to investigate the hypothesized relationships and to assess the ?tness of the model. The cheating  behavior  was found to be influenced by both external and self-generated  factors. Speci?cally, individual     gamers’ social  environment (peer influence), evaluation of cheating outcomes, attitude towards game cheating,and  game cheating self-efficacy played an important role in shaping  this problematic behavior in online games.