Reducing Bounded Ethicality

Ting  Zhang; Pinar O. Fletcher; Francesca  Gino; Max H. Bazerman

Article | Organizational Dynamics | October–December 2015

Reducing Bounded Ethicality: How to Help Individuals Notice and Avoid Unethical Behavior

by Ting Zhang, Pinar O. Fletcher, Francesca Gino and Max H. Bazerman

Abstract

Research on ethics has focused on the factors that help individuals act ethically when they are tempted to cheat. However, we know little about how best to help individuals notice unethical behaviors in others and in themselves. This paper identifies a solution: instilling a mindset of vigilance. In an experiment, individuals playing the role of financial advisers recommended one of four possible investments to their clients. Unbeknown to these advisers, one of the funds under consideration was actually a fraudulent feeder fund of Madoff Investment Securities. Results from this empirical study demonstrate that instilling vigilance by asking individuals to indicate their suspicions prior to making a decision was critical to helping them notice fraudulent behavior and act on that information. In contrast, committing to a decision prior to contemplating suspicions precluded individuals from subsequently integrating critical information about the fund’s fraudulent activity. We extend these findings to other interventions aimed at helping managers notice unethical behavior.

Keywords: Ethics; Management Skills; Behavior; Perception;

Format: Print

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Citation:

Zhang, Ting, Pinar O. Fletcher, Francesca Gino, and Max H. Bazerman. "Reducing Bounded Ethicality: How to Help Individuals Notice and Avoid Unethical Behavior." Special Issue on Bad Behavior. Organizational Dynamics 44, no. 4 (October–December 2015): 310–317.

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, July 2019. View Details

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In the spring of 2019, Lt. Col. Matthew 'Chaos' Nussbaum is nearing the end of his two-year term as commander of the U.S. Air Force's 99th Reconnaissance Squadron. In this position, he has focused the majority of his energy on finding new ways to organize, train and equip the unit, whose mission is to execute and sustain U-2 operations globally. Nussbaum's methods empowered individuals within the squadron, and enabled them to achieve much that people familiar with the Department of Defense previously considered impossible. Yet with progress came risk, and costs. This case considers how breakthroughs were made, examines the role leadership played, and asks how Nussbaum's approach can both be sustained in the 99th and more widely applied throughout the Air Force.

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Reducing Bounded Ethicality: How to Help Individuals Notice and Avoid Unethical Behavior

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