[Professor Robert Prentice] Most people understand that ethics is important, but when they think
of studying it, they conjure up visions of Aristotle or John Stuart Mill because ethics
has traditionally been taught in philosophy departments.
Or, they think of preachers giving sermons to build up the character of their parishioners.
These are important ways to think about ethics, but studies show that philosophers aren't
any more ethical than the rest of us, even though they are likely better at moral reasoning.
And, it turns out, there's no strong correlation between traditional measures of character
and ethical actions, which is why we constantly read in the newspaper about good people
doing bad things.
[John] Something that I experienced coming into college and something I did not experience
in high school at all was the presence of study drugs and of people buying those illegally
off of other people.
The feeling that I got was that, you know, I want to maximize my performance and I deserve
to maximize my performance, and so I'm going to take these things even though I’m not
prescribed them.
I totally felt like if I wasn’t taking those things then I wouldn’t get to...
do my best in college.
That's just a really unfortunate thing for you to feel as you come in as a freshman that
if you’re not cheating you’re not trying.
The latest approach to teaching business ethics, which is highlighted in many of the short
videos in this series, comes from the new field called behavioral ethics, which studies
how and why people make the ethical and unethical decisions that they do.
[Claire] I think a lot of times we're concerned with our own image and how we will
be perceived by our peers and we want to be popular, we want to be seen as the cool kid
in school rather than sticking to our own ethical standards.
I think what keeps me from speaking up when someone is cheating is selfishness.
Because I want to save face and it doesn’t affect me.
[Kelly] No one wants to be "that" person.
[Kelly] Even if you are the person who stands up and corrects someone, if you don’t see it
fixing anything, you get discouraged.
Behavioral ethics focuses in large part upon why well-intentioned people sometimes make
bad decisions and do not live up to their own ethical standards.
Many psychological biases and decision-making heuristics or short cuts cause people to make
unethical decisions in violation of their own standards.
Sometimes these missteps are made consciously; more often they are made subconsciously.
Organizational pressures that exist inside many firms and social pressures that are ubiquitous
in society can also make it difficult for people to act ethically.
[James] I, you know, had this great image in my head that UT was super friendly to people
and didn’t ever feel the need to call anyone out on their sexual orientation.
As I turned around to leave they were like, "whatever faggot."
A professor was nearby and heard them say that and they got called to their dean or
something like that.
So it was kind of like justice!
You say things and you don’t even realize what an effect it can have on other people.
The study of behavioral ethics largely focuses upon these situational factors which,
the evidence indicates, can overwhelm a person's character.
For example, consider the conformity bias, which is the tendency people have to take
their cues for proper behavior, including ethical behavior, from their peers rather
than exercising their own independent ethical judgement.
[Dana] Last semester I was in a UGS class and we had a UGS discussion section.
We had been taking notes and someone was typing notes on their computer.
And then we were supposed to have a little quiz.
They had pulled up the articles that we were supposed to have read on the computer screen.
And then her and the guy next to her were looking on the screen while we were taking
the quiz.
And the TA didn’t notice, but I’m pretty sure me and a lot of the other students noticed
but we all didn’t say anything just because it would’ve been...
We just all didn’t feel the need to even though we knew it was wrong.
And then there's role morality, which describes the tendency many people have to use different
moral standards as they play different "roles" in society.
For example, to take ethically questionable actions in their role as loyal employees at
work to advance their company's profit goals that they would never take at home to put
money in their own pocket.
And there's the overconfidence bias, which is the tendency of people to be more confident
than is objectively justified regarding their moral character and their ability to act ethically.
[Krupa] I think that we all would all like to think that we would make good decisions,
and a lot of it I do think is innate.
I think that if you are a good person, generally you’re going to make good decisions.
[Kirk] No, I think I’m old enough now that I’m not naive to the fact that even though
I think I’m a good person, there will be times where I’m tempted to do something
wrong or may not even realize that it’s as big a deal that it really is.
I may, in my own mind, minimize it to my own advantage.
These concepts, and others covered in Ethics Unwrapped, certainly do not exhaust the ethical
traps that our minds can lay for us, but they make a good start at warning people who sincerely
want to act ethically about psychological biases and organizational pressures
that may trip them up.
This information should be very helpful to people who want to improve the ethicality
of their decision making and actions, and to businesses and other organizations that
wish to create ethical environments in which their employees' ethical decision making can flourish.
[Ghal] The thing about ethics is, you know, you can have a list of principles but you
don’t always realize when you’re crossing the line.
I try to do my best not to and always make sure I’m aware of what's going on.
But, I mean, it happens.
[Gaurav] Unless you talk about ethics, and unless you discuss issues, you won’t discover
your own personal boundaries.
[Luke] The more people we get talking about ethics, and promoting an ethical standpoint,
the more people are going to have it, you know, have that framework in their mind.
It shouldn’t be something you think about every once in a while when you’re in a certain
situation; it really should be something that’s in the forefront of your mind at all times.