Behavioral Ethics: Session 1
Behavioral Ethics
Normative Ethics:
Focuses on what people “ought” to do
Deals with moral theories and principles
Aims to establish standards of right and wrong
o Key question: “What is the ethical decision a person should
make?”
Behavioral Ethics:
“The study of why people make the ethical and unethical decisions that they
do.”1 (Biasucci & Prentice)
Focuses on how people actually behave in ethical situations
o Psychological, social, and situational factors
Humans are complex, somewhat irrational generally well-intentioned
beings
o Examines why people often fail to live up to their own ethical
standards
o Examples: Studies on cheating behavior, impact of authority on
ethical choices
o Key question: “Why do people make the ethical decisions they
do?”
Behavioral Ethics & Normative Ethics:
Normative ethics: theoretical framework for what is right or wrong
Behavioral ethics: why people might deviate from these norms
o Example:
Normative ethics: lying is wrong
1
Biasucci, Cara, and Robert Prentice. Behavioral Ethics in Practice : Why We Sometimes
Make the Wrong Decisions, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.
Behavioral ethics: why do people lie despite believing its
wrong
Moral Decision Making
Sentimentalism vs. Rationalism
Sentimentalists: Emotional nature of moral intuitions
Rationalists: Importance of rational analysis (e.g., Kant)
o Both sides acknowledge:
Interplay of emotion and reason in ethical decisions
Presence of unconscious and conscious processes
Disagreement centers on which system has more influence
Behavioral ethics: our ethical judgments are more emotion based than we
tend to realize.
Brain Function and Decision Making2
Majority of brain work occurs below conscious level
o Two systems of decision making:
o System 1:
Emotional, intuitive
o System 2:
Conscious, logical, and reasoned
Engaged in about 2 kill me I cant write that fast
Role of Reasoning in Moral Decisions
Moral Decision Making
2
From the research of Daniel Kahneman
o Jonathan Haidt's Observation:
Moral intuitions arise automatically; are reactionary
Occur before conscious moral reasoning
Initial intuitions often guide later rationalizations
What does lead us to act ethically?
Inner-directed emotions
o Guilt (feel when acting immorally)
o Shame (feel when others discover that one has acted immorally)
Outer-directed emotions
o Anger and disgust (people feel toward others who violate
accepted moral standards)
Developing Rational Conclusions or Just Rationalizations?
o Rational human moral decision making is often deficient
o Understanding the balance between emotion and reason is
crucial in the study of ethics
Group Conversation
How might this claim about emotions and moral reasoning challenge how we
go about thinking about moral issues?
Behavioral Ethics Claims
Cognitive Biases
Understanding Cognitive Biases
Rational Thinking vs. Cognitive Errors
o People believe…
o Cognitive errors…
Group Activity
1. Cognitive bias examples
Confirmation Bias
Anchoring Bias
Availability Heuristic
Hindsight Bias
Self-Serving Bias
Dunning-Kruger Effect
Bandwagon Effect
Adopting behaviors, styles, or attitudes because others are
doing it.
If most people have a morally immoral view, others might
think the same despite it being immoral and ‘wrong’.
Ex. You might vote for a political party because it has the
most support, not necessarily because of what the
party stands for.
Optimism Bias
Framing Effect
Discussion
1. Define the bias.
2. How does this bias affect decision-making in real-life scenarios?
Social and Environmental Influences
Social proof: Tendency to look to others for cues on how to behave
ethically
Obedience to authority: How hierarchical structures can lead to
unethical compliance
Group dynamics: Phenomena like groupthink and diffusion of
responsibility
Organizational culture: The role of norms, values, and leadership in
shaping ethical behavior
Situational factors: How time pressure, cognitive load, and
emotional state affect ethical choices
Addressing Behavioral Ethics in Individuals
Complete avoidance…
Education…
Awareness of…
