[Professor Robert Prentice] In the book he wrote about his crimes, disgraced lobbyist
Jack Abramoff - Casino Jack - asked: "What was I thinking?"
This is a familiar refrain among white-collar criminals.
Why can they see their ethical failings in retrospect, but not earlier when it really mattered?
Part of the explanation is what professors Ann Tenbrunsel and David Messick call ethical fading.
[Francisco] Sometimes situations happen and we gotta think on our feet so we go with our gut.
Our instinct will tell us sometimes to benefit ourselves instead of looking on behalf of
the greater picture.
Imagine that you work for a company in internal audit and your boss asks you to inappropriately
massage some earnings numbers.
And it happens to be the week that the company is deciding whom to lay off in the most recent
round of cutbacks.
And you want to keep your job, of course.
It is possible that you will not even notice the ethical dimensions of the action you have
just been asked to take by your boss.
These ethical dimensions may just fade from view.
Ethical decisions are often made almost automatically by the parts of our brain that process emotions.
Only later do our cognitive processes kick in.
When we think we are reasoning to an ethical conclusion, often all we are really doing
is searching for rationalizations to support the decision that we have already made instinctively.
[Jamal] Whenever I make decisions, even if they aren't totally ethical,
I can still rationalize it that way.
Everyone believes we're a good person; therefore we try to keep that image throughout our lives.
As time distances us from the decision we have made, the ethical issues may start to reappear.
We may feel the need to reduce the cognitive dissonance that results from the conflict
between our view of ourselves as ethical people and the unethical action that we have committed.
Studies show that offering people an opportunity to wash their hands after behaving immorally
is often enough to restore their self-image.
There is a reason we talk about starting with a "clean" slate.
[Britta] We make a decision and then we look back on it and we second guess it and then,
you know, you call up your best friend on the phone at midnight and be like,
"tell me what I did was right!"
You don't have to think about the real ramifications of that because you've told yourself "it’s okay."
Even if our minds cannot cause an ethical issue to fade from view, a process known as
"moral disengagement" can mitigate the sting of an unethical decision.
Moral disengagement is a process by which our brain enables us to turn off our usual
ethical standards when we feel the psychological need to do so, just like we turn off
a TV when a show comes on that makes us uncomfortable.
Studies show, for example, that people who want to buy an article of clothing that they
know was manufactured with child labor will suddenly view child labor as less of a societal
problem than they thought before.
Moral disengagement allows us to suspend our personal codes of ethics, yet continue to
view ourselves as ethical people.
I'm a filmmaker and when we have to do any sort of shots that are dangerous, like
a car chase scene, or a fight scene, you're required to have a stunt coordinator on hand.
I suppose it's all of our responsibility to speak up and say, "this is not safe
unless we have a professional here."
These things are justified little by little of like, “Well sure, it’s a car chase
but we’re not going that fast.”
Or, “Ah, but they’ve done car chases in movies in the past so really they’re experienced.”
There is no easy cure for ethical fading and moral disengagement.
Our only option is to be vigilant in looking out for ethical issues and equally circumspect
in monitoring our own actions and rationalizations.
Remind yourself what your true ethical values are and surround yourself with people that
you think match those values.
I think it’s helpful to have an honest confidant.
[Michael] When you face an unethical decision that you realize the decision you’re making
and you actually sit down and think about it rather than just making the decision not
even realizing that you’re about to do something unethical.
[Megan] Being unethical does happen even though it’s not wanted, it does happen.
And to talk through it.
Sometimes you don’t like to hear it, which is why you need to have someone close to you who can be like,
"I know you don’t want to hear this but you’re making a bad decision."