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Ethics Defined (Glossary)

Productive discussions have a shared vocabulary. Animated, 2-min. videos define key ethics terms and concepts. Provide common ground for enlightened conversation in the realm of ethics and leadership.  #EducateYourself

Altruism

Altruism

Altruism is when we behave selflessly and value the welfare of others.

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Applied Ethics

Applied Ethics

Applied ethics, also called practical ethics, is the application of ethics to real-world problems.

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Cognitive Bias

Cognitive Bias

Cognitive biases are errors in thinking that affect people’s decision-making in virtually every situation.

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Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive dissonance is the mental stress people feel when they hold two contradictory ideas in their mind at the same time.

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Confirmation Bias

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias is our tendency to seek out or interpret information that supports our pre-existing beliefs, expectations, or hypotheses.

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Conformity Bias

Conformity Bias

The Conformity Bias describes people’s tendency to take their behavioral cues from those around them.

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Consequentialism

Consequentialism

Consequentialism is an ethical theory that judges an action’s moral correctness by its consequences.

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Corruption

Corruption

Corruption is the dishonest conduct for personal gain by people in power.

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Deontology

Deontology

Deontology is an ethical theory that uses rules to discern the moral course of action.

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Diffusion of Responsibility

Diffusion of Responsibility

Diffusion of Responsibility occurs when people fail to take action because they assume that since others nearby are not acting, action is not appropriate.

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Ethical Fading

Ethical Fading

Ethical Fading occurs when people focus on some other aspect of a decision so that the ethical dimensions of the choice fade from view.

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Ethics

Ethics

Ethics refers to both moral principles and to the study of people’s moral obligations in society.

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Fiduciary Duty

Fiduciary Duty

A Fiduciary Duty is a legal obligation to act in the best interest of another rather than one’s self.

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Framing

Framing

Framing describes how people’s responses to ethical (and other) issues are affected by the frame of reference through which they view the issues.

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Fundamental Attribution Error

Fundamental Attribution Error

The Fundamental Attribution Error is the tendency people have to attribute others’ actions to their character, ignoring the impact that situational factors might have on that behavior.

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Groupthink

Groupthink

Groupthink occurs when people’s desire to maintain group loyalty trumps all other factors, including abiding by their personal code of ethics.

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Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset

Fixed and growth mindsets are mindsets that influence how people learn and grow.

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Harm Principle

Harm Principle

The harm principle is the idea that people should be free to act as they wish as long as their actions do not cause harm to others.

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Hedonism

Hedonism

Hedonism is a form of consequentialism that approves of actions that produce pleasure and avoid pain.

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In-group/Out-group

In-group/Out-group

The In-group/Out-group phenomenon describes the fact that we tend to judge and treat people who are like us more favorably than people who are different from us.

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Incrementalism

Incrementalism

Incrementalism is the slippery slope whereby people’s actions evolve from small, technical violations to larger, more significant wrongs.

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Integrity

Integrity

Integrity is an indispensable moral virtue that includes acting with honesty, fairness, and decency.

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Justice

Justice

Justice is a complicated concept that at its core requires fairness.

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Loss Aversion

Loss Aversion

Loss Aversion is the tendency people have to dislike losses more than they enjoy gains, which can lead people to lie in order to avoid the consequences of innocent (or other) mistakes.

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Moral Absolutism

Moral Absolutism

Moral Absolutism is a form of deontology that asserts that certain actions are intrinsically right or wrong.

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Moral Agent

Moral Agent

A Moral Agent is a person who can be held accountable for his or her actions because he or she has the ability to tell right from wrong.

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Moral Cognition

Moral Cognition

Moral Cognition is the study by psychologists, neuroscientists, and others of how people make moral judgments and choices.

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Moral Emotions

Moral Emotions

Moral Emotions are the feelings and intuitions–including shame, disgust, and empathy–that play a major role in most of the ethical judgments and decisions people make.

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Moral Equilibrium

Moral Equilibrium

Moral Equilibrium is the idea that we compare our self-image with our conduct and adjust our actions accordingly, for better or for worse.

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Moral Imagination

Moral Imagination

Moral Imagination is creatively imagining the full range of options while making moral decisions.

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Moral Myopia

Moral Myopia

Moral Myopia is the difficulty people sometimes have in clearly seeing ethical issues and ethical challenges.

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Moral Pluralism

Moral Pluralism

Moral Pluralism is the notion that various conflicting values may all be equally valid and worthy of respect.

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Moral Psychology

Moral Psychology

Moral Psychology encompasses both the philosophical and psychological study of the development of the moral sense and related matters.

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Moral Reasoning

Moral Reasoning

Moral Reasoning is the branch of philosophy that attempts to answer questions with moral dimensions.

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Moral Relativism

Moral Relativism

Moral Relativism asserts that moral standards are culturally-defined and therefore it may be impossible to determine what is truly right or wrong.

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Morals

Morals

Morals are society’s accepted principles of right conduct that enable people to live cooperatively.

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Neuroethics

Neuroethics

Neuroethics uses the tools of neuroscience to examine how we make ethical choices. It is also the investigation of the ethics of neuroscience.

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Obedience to Authority

Obedience to Authority

Obedience to Authority is the tendency people have to try to comply with superiors’ wishes, even when to do so conflicts with their own moral judgment.

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Overconfidence Bias

Overconfidence Bias

The Overconfidence Bias is the tendency people have to be more confident in their own abilities, including making moral judgments, than objective facts would justify.

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Rationalizations

Rationalizations

Rationalizations are the excuses people give themselves for failing to live up to their own ethical standards.

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Role Morality

Role Morality

Role morality describes how people sometimes apply different ethical standards depending on what role they see themselves playing.

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Self-Serving Bias

Self-Serving Bias

The Self-Serving Bias is the tendency people have to process information in ways that advance their own self-interest or support their pre-existing views.

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Social Contract Theory

Social Contract Theory

Social Contract Theory is the idea that society exists because of an implicitly agreed-to set of standards that provide moral and political rules of behavior.

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Sustainability

Sustainability

Sustainability is living to meet the needs of the present generation without depleting the resources that future generations will need to meet their needs.

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Tangible & Abstract

Tangible & Abstract

The Tangible & Abstract describes how people may make moral errors by focusing too much on immediate factors that are close in time and geography and too little on more abstract factors that are removed in time and place.

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Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that asserts that right and wrong are best determined by focusing on outcomes of actions and choices.

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Values

Values

Values are society’s shared beliefs about what is good or bad and how people should act.

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Veil of Ignorance

Veil of Ignorance

The Veil of Ignorance is a device for helping people more fairly envision a fair society by pretending that they are ignorant of their personal circumstances.

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Virtue Ethics

Virtue Ethics

Virtue Ethics is a normative philosophical approach that urges people to live a moral life by cultivating virtuous habits.

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