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Dictionary Entry | Encyclopedia of Management Theory | 2013

Managerial Decision Biases

by Ting Zhang and Max Bazerman

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Format: Print 5 pages

Citation:

Zhang, Ting, and Max Bazerman. "Managerial Decision Biases." In Encyclopedia of Management Theory. Volume 1 edited by Eric H. Kessler, 470–474. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2013.

About the Authors

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Ting Zhang
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Organizational Behavior

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Max H. Bazerman
Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration
Negotiation, Organizations & Markets

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More from these Authors

  • Article | Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy | 2019

    Pay-for-Monopoly?: An Assessment of Reverse Payment Deals by Pharmaceutical Companies

    Sana Rafiq and Max Bazerman

    Citation:

    Rafiq, Sana, and Max Bazerman. "Pay-for-Monopoly? An Assessment of Reverse Payment Deals by Pharmaceutical Companies." Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy 3, no. 1 (2019): 37–43.  View Details
    CiteView Details Read Now Related
  • Working Paper | 2019

    Redirecting Rawlsian Reasoning toward the Greater Good

    Joshua D. Greene, Karen Huang and Max Bazerman

    Citation:

    Greene, Joshua D., Karen Huang, and Max Bazerman. "Redirecting Rawlsian Reasoning toward the Greater Good." Working Paper, 2019.  View Details
    CiteView Details Related
  • Working Paper | 2019

    Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good

    Karen Huang, Joshua D. Greene and Max Bazerman

    The “veil of ignorance” is a moral reasoning device designed to promote impartial decision-making by denying decision-makers access to potentially biasing information about who will benefit most or least from the available options. Veil-of-ignorance reasoning was originally applied by philosophers and economists to foundational questions concerning the overall organization of society. Here we apply veil-of-ignorance reasoning in a more focused way to specific moral dilemmas, all of which involve a tension between the greater good and competing moral concerns. Across six experiments (N = 5,785), three pre-registered, we find that veil-of-ignorance reasoning favors the greater good. Participants first engaged in veil-of-ignorance reasoning about a specific dilemma, asking themselves what they would want if they did not know who among those affected they would be. Participants then responded to a more conventional version of the same dilemma with a moral judgment, a policy preference, or an economic choice. Participants who first engaged in veil-of-ignorance reasoning subsequently made more utilitarian choices in response to a classic philosophical dilemma, a medical dilemma, a real donation decision between a more vs. less effective charity, and a policy decision concerning the social dilemma of autonomous vehicles. These effects depend on the impartial thinking induced by veil-of-ignorance reasoning and cannot be explained by a simple anchoring account, probabilistic reasoning, or generic perspective-taking. These studies indicate that veil-of-ignorance reasoning may be a useful tool for decision-makers who wish to make more impartial and/or socially beneficial choices.

    Keywords: policy-making; procedural justice; Ethics; Decision Making; Fairness;

    Citation:

    Huang, Karen, Joshua D. Greene, and Max Bazerman. "Veil-of-Ignorance Reasoning Favors the Greater Good." Working Paper, October 2019.  View Details
    CiteView Details Read Now Related
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