[Professor Robert Prentice] Economists have often modeled human decision makers
as completely rational.
According to this model, rational people know their own preferences, gather and accurately
process all relevant information,
and then make rational choices that advance their own interests.
However, Herbert Simon won a Nobel Prize in economics by pointing out that people are rational,
but only boundedly so in that they seldom gather all available information,
they often do not accurately process the information that they do gather,
nor do they necessarily know what it is that will make them happy.
People are rational, but boundedly so.
[Courtney] With rationality, I think it's much easier with economic decisions.
I mean there is a number.
I mean we are business students - I think we like numbers.
Ethical issues…
I mean there is so much in between.
The decisions can't be made the same way.
There isn't the basis to do that.
If the last fifty years of psychological research has proven anything, it is that the
situational often dominates the dispositional.
That is to say, our disposition or desire to be good people
can be overwhelmed by psychological or organizational factors
that we may not even be aware of.
These factors adversely affect ethical decision-making as well as economic decision-making,
meaning that people are boundedly ethical as well as boundedly rational.
[Kelly] I grew up Catholic, and I since have not really felt that connected to the Catholic... church.
I still feel obligated to go to please family members.
The basic notion, as spelled out by Professor Ann Tenbrunsel and her colleagues, is that
systematic and predictable organizational pressures and psychological processes cause
people to engage in ethically questionable behaviors that are inconsistent with
their own preferences.
Various factors cause us to make unethical decisions that we later regret.
[Lauren] If you have ever been around high school mean girls you know that there are
certain times that you will have your own ethics and morals kind of pushed a little
bit for the sake of joining a group.
For example, although most of us want to act ethically, we also wish to please authority figures.
Therefore, if our boss asks us to do something unethical,
we may do it without even realizing our mistake
because we are focusing on pleasing the boss rather than on the ethical dimensions
of the issue facing us.
To take another example, we also have a natural desire to be "part of the team" at work.
Therefore, if a questionable action advances the team's interests, as we perceive them,
we may act unethically because, again, we are focusing upon achieving the team's goals
rather than on adhering to our own ethical standards.
[Taylor] Our coach would be like, you know, "If you really need to, you know, try to trip
her or kind of hurt her more than she needs to be."
In the heat of the moment our team is like, "Yea!
Okay we are aggressive, we got this!" but then later on, if you really think about it,
there's no need to be more aggressive in a soccer game.
Most of us want to act ethically, and are certain that we will because
we just know we're good people.
But most of us are also overconfident regarding our own ethicality.
This can lead to complacency that causes us to make decisions containing ethical dimensions
without reflecting deeply.
So, we're ethical, it's true, but boundedly so.
I recommend a little humility.
Only if we truly commit ourselves to being ethical people and diligently guard against
the organizational pressures and psychological factors that put bounds upon our ability to
be so, can we possibly realize our ethical potential.
[Nathan] I think humans are very irrational people.
[Diana] I think situational factors do influence the decisions you make, whether it's ethical or not.
[Samantha] To overcome them you have to actually see that you're doing something wrong.
You can't overcome something if you don't think you're not doing anything wrong.
We construct taboos and societal norms and then we push back against those.
I think if we just think about what is really important, like family, friends, and then just
do the best that you can without doing anything unethical, like hurting someone in a soccer game
or cheating on a test just so that you can do well, then that’s going to lead you
to be more happy than you were if you did do something unethical.