Human Mind Traps: Behavioral Ethics & AI

[Note: these questions were written in the summer of 2026. It seems that every aspect of AI’s development, usage, and impact is evolving at a rapid pace. Take that into account and use relevant, recent information in formulating your answers and arguments.]

1. Behavioral ethics studies how and why people make the ethical (and unethical) decisions that they do. To some extent, it is the study of why good people sometimes do bad things. It is based on science arising from fields such as psychology, brain science, child development, primatology, and numerous others. Do you personally know or have you read about good people who have done bad things? Are such things possible? Be specific.
2. Did the psychological concepts discussed in the video make sense to you? Or did they sound like crazy talk? Explain.
3. Studies show that people have a tendency to be obedient to authority. The pleasure centers of our brains light up when we please people above us in the chain of command. Have you ever done something you were morally uncomfortable with because a person in a position of authority—a parent, a teacher, a boss at work—told you to? Can you envision a programmer being morally uncomfortable with a feature that the CEO has asked her to add to a new AI tool, but doing it anyway because, “hey, the boss told me to do it”? Explain your answer.
4. The conformity bias is the tendency people have to take their cues regarding how to act—how to drive, how to dance, what to eat, what to wear—from those around them. People also tend to take ethical cues from those around them. So, if you work for an AI company where the corporate culture is to cut ethical corners, you are more likely to do the same. If all your friends use AI without any concern about its impact on the environment or on people, do you think you might be more likely to do the same? Indeed, has that happened with you and your friends just like the “fast fashion” scenario mentioned in the video? Be specific.
5. The overconfidence bias is the tendency people have to be more confident in their abilities, including those in the moral realm, than the objective facts would warrant. It is very likely that all the major players in AI development think of themselves as good folks who are only trying to make the world a better place. Do some research into the actions, changes of mind, and controversies among these AI leaders over the past decade or so and decide if there is any evidence of the overconfidence bias among these leaders. Support your opinion with specific examples.
6. The self-serving bias is people’s tendency to process information in ways that advance their perceived self-interest or support their pre-existing positions. It can operate completely unconsciously. In Meet Your New Coworker: Employment & AI, a professor describes how her computer science students generally believed that the government should not interfere when new technology started eliminating workers’ jobs. However recently, she has noticed that—as computer science jobs are suddenly in danger of disappearing because of AI—most of her computer science students now think that government action is a good idea. Is this possibly a result of the self-serving bias in action? Explain.
7. Incrementalism is the slippery slope whereby people’s actions may evolve from small, technical moral violations to more significant wrongs, often without their even noticing that this is happening. Do a little research on Sam Altman’s view of the dangers of AI over the past decade—does it seem like an embodiment of incrementalism in action? Why or why not? Have you ever been affected by incrementalism in decision making in your own life? Be specific.
8. 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 focusing too little on more abstract factors that are removed in time and place. It has been suggested that back in the 1970s, the bias of the tangible & abstract had a lot to do with Ford Motor Company marketing the Pinto automobile even though it had flunked all rear-end collision safety tests. One of the speakers in the video talked about how this phenomenon might lead company executives to put out a dangerous AI product without fully considering the bad impact it might have on customers and others. Did that scenario, especially if reinforced by the self-serving bias, seem plausible to you? Why or why not?
9. Moral emotions are human emotions that impact our moral decision making. Does it make sense to you that most people generally do the right thing in large part because they would feel guilty if they did a bad thing and that they would feel shame if their family and friends found out about their transgression? If that does make sense, how do you feel about the fact that AI will not feel those emotions when it makes decisions with moral consequences? How might we remedy this danger?
10. Having implicit bias means we unconsciously hold attitudes towards others or associate negative stereotypes with them. As a speaker in the video states, we should not beat ourselves up too much about having implicit biases, because it is a human thing to do. However, it is vitally important that we guard against the impact of those biases and be as open as we can be to others’ points of view. In Is That Fair? Bias & AI, many speakers argue that the human biases that can become reflected in AI models must be guarded against. Do you agree? Why or why not? How might we do that?
11. All the speakers in the video— many of them computer science students— believe that ethics is an important subject to learn in computer science. Do you agree? Why or why not? Where else might ethics be an important topic to learn when it comes to designing, selling, or using AI? Be specific.

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AI Ethics Companion Handbook

This e-book compiles all the resources on AI ethics available on the Ethics Unwrapped website. It will continue to be updated as new materials are published.

A recent resource from Ethics Unwrapped is a book, Behavioral Ethics in Practice: Why We Sometimes Make the Wrong Decisions, written by Cara Biasucci and Robert Prentice. This accessible book is amply footnoted with behavioral ethics studies and associated research. It also includes suggestions at the end of each chapter for related Ethics Unwrapped videos and case studies. Some instructors use this resource to educate themselves, while others use it in lieu of (or in addition to) a textbook.

The most recent article written by Cara Biasucci and Robert Prentice describes the basics of behavioral ethics and introduces Ethics Unwrapped videos and supporting materials along with teaching examples. It also includes data on the efficacy of Ethics Unwrapped for improving ethics pedagogy across disciplines. Published in Journal of Business Law and Ethics Pedagogy (Vol. 1, August 2018), it can be downloaded here: “Teaching Behavioral Ethics (Using “Ethics Unwrapped” Videos and Educational Materials).”

Cara Biasucci also wrote a chapter on integrating Ethics Unwrapped in higher education, which can be found in the latest edition of Teaching Ethics: Instructional Models, Methods and Modalities for University Studies. The chapter includes examples of how Ethics Unwrapped is used at various universities.

An article written by Ethics Unwrapped authors Minette Drumwright, Robert Prentice, and Cara Biasucci introduce key concepts in behavioral ethics and approaches to effective ethics instruction—including sample classroom assignments. Published in the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, it can be downloaded here: “Behavioral Ethics and Teaching Ethical Decision Making.”

A detailed article written by Robert Prentice, with extensive resources for teaching behavioral ethics, was published in Journal of Legal Studies Education and can be downloaded here: “Teaching Behavioral Ethics.”

Another article by Robert Prentice, discussing how behavioral ethics can improve the ethicality of human decision-making, was published in the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy. It can be downloaded here: “Behavioral Ethics: Can It Help Lawyers (And Others) Be their Best Selves?”

A dated (but still serviceable) introductory article about teaching behavioral ethics can be accessed through Google Scholar by searching: Prentice, Robert A. 2004. “Teaching Ethics, Heuristics, and Biases.” Journal of Business Ethics Education 1 (1): 57-74.