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Resources Overview

Ethics Unwrapped is broadly applicable to many fields. It supports ethics instruction across disciplines, and the development of ethical culture within organizations. The program resources are sorted here according to nine areas of interest, with tips for incorporating Ethics Unwrapped into coursework and organizations.

Curated Resources

What We Offer

The majority (not all) of Ethics Unwrapped’s resources are curated here so you can explore the bulk of the content through one (or more) of the nine focus or practice areas. Each focus area begins with an overview of the ethics concepts relevant to that category. “Start Here” features three pertinent videos and three case studies. Additional related videos are listed separately. Additional case studies are sorted by academic discipline.

Intro to Ethics Unwrapped provides an overview of the program, which includes 150+ videos (with discussion questions, teaching notes, video transcripts, additional resources, and bibliographies) and 85+ case studies (with discussion questions, related videos, and bibliographies). There is also a video glossary of ethics terms and concepts.

Ethics Unwrapped is available in English and Spanish. The website is bilingual; to access the Spanish version, select “Español” in the navigation bar next to the university logo. All the videos are subtitled in Spanish, and close captioned for the deaf and hearing impaired. The case studies and teaching notes can be downloaded as PDFs in English or Spanish.

Video/Case Study Pairings

Most Ethics Unwrapped videos are paired with at least one case study to illustrate the ethics concept in a real-world situation. Each case study includes discussion questions, related videos, and a bibliography to encourage further reading.

Academic Use

Ethics Unwrapped resources are flexible in format, and have been used successfully in seminar courses, fully online courses, discussion sections, flipped classrooms, and other blended class formats.

Over two years, Ethics Unwrapped resources were integrated into a wide range of courses in collaboration with dozens of faculty across seven colleges on the UT Austin campus. Of the 8,600 undergraduate students surveyed, 90% said that watching Ethics Unwrapped videos helped them understand and learn ethics concepts.

Ethics Unwrapped resources are adaptable as well as effective. These ethics concepts apply to every academic discipline where human beings think, interact, and work. Many behavioral ethics concepts operate in tandem with each other. As students explore more resources, they will become more fluent in ethics. They will also more easily grasp the interrelatedness of ethics concepts, and the relevance of these ideas to good leadership.

The Ethics Unwrapped Faculty Director and Creator/Director recently wrote an accessible book, Behavioral Ethics in Practice: Why We Sometimes Make the Wrong Decisions, which some instructors use in lieu of (or in addition to) a textbook. The book is copiously footnoted, with behavioral ethics research and studies, and includes suggestions at the end of chapters for related Ethics Unwrapped videos and case studies.

The Ethics Unwrapped Creator/Director also wrote a chapter on using Ethics Unwrapped in higher education, which can be found in the latest edition of Teaching Ethics: Instructional Models, Methods and Modalities for University Studies.

Organizational Use

Around the world, large and small companies, consultants, non-profit organizations, trade associations, and government agencies incorporate Ethics Unwrapped in employee education and training programs. Everyone within an organization benefits from adding behavioral ethics to an ethics and compliance training program.

Ethics Unwrapped developed an online, on-demand professional development course with Texas Executive Education, using Ethics Unwrapped content, which can be accessed here.

To foster ethical organizational culture, and to stimulate everyone’s thinking about ethics and leadership, consider implementing one or more of these activities in your organization:

Many behavioral ethics concepts operate in tandem with each other. The more resources your team or organization explores, the more versed your organization will become in ethics and values-driven leadership. As everyone learns about the interrelatedness of these concepts (and practices identifying and giving voice to them), the clearer it will be how this knowledge can support the development of ethical culture within your organization.

Here is a list of foundational concepts from the Ethics Defined glossary to get started: Behavioral Ethics, Cognitive Bias, Confirmation Bias, Conflict of Interest, Conformity Bias, Framing, Incrementalism, Obedience to Authority, Overconfidence Bias, Rationalizations, Role Morality, Self-serving Bias.

To gain greater fluency in ethics, add: Altruism, Altruistic Cheating, Bounded Ethicality, Cognitive Dissonance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corruption, Diffusion of Responsibility, Ethical Fading, Fiduciary Duty, Groupthink, Harm Principle, In-group/Out-group, Integrity, Justice, Moral Equilibrium, Moral Muteness, Moral Myopia, Prosocial Behavior, Sustainability, Tangible & Abstract.

Using Our Content

Ethics Unwrapped is offered by the Center for Leadership and Ethics to the public at no cost. If you share or embed Ethics Unwrapped resources on your website (or another website) or use the materials in training programs, presentations, or printed form, please credit us and hyperlink “Ethics Unwrapped” to the home page of this website.

Here is how to credit the copyrighted videos: “This video is provided by Ethics Unwrapped and is a free educational resource from The University of Texas at Austin.”

Here is how to credit the copyrighted case studies: “Copyright © 2023 Ethics Unwrapped – McCombs School of Business – The University of Texas at Austin”

If you have any questions about using Ethics Unwrapped, please contact us. If you do use Ethics Unwrapped, please consider making a donation to support our work. Thank you!