Football Players Behaving Badly: The Ethics of Hazing at Northwestern University Northwestern University’s athletics department finds itself in the big middle of a number of scandals breaking nearly simultaneously. Not a good look for perhaps the brainiest university of the fourteen (soon to be sixteen and perhaps more) schools in the Big 10. There are scandals everywhere one looks–in baseball, softball, volleyball, and even cheerleading–but we […] Ver
Academic Dishonesty in Ethics Studies Ethics Unwrapped focuses significantly on behavioral ethics, the science of moral decision-making. The science of behavioral ethics is only as solid as the work of the scientists who research in the field, and last month behavioral ethics was dealt a blow when one of the field’s stars, Francesca Gino of the Harvard Business School, was […] Ver
Prejudice in Big Law: Lawyers Behaving Badly When we at Ethics Unwrapped make public presentations about ethics, we speak to a broad range of audiences—e.g., church groups, social groups, student groups, and many professional groups including teachers, doctors, engineers, geologists, construction contractors, and lawyers. Legal professionals are aware that the pressures of their work create numerous ethical challenges and the profession’s continuing […] Ver
Lessons from Paul Woodruff’s «Living Toward Virtue» As he recently indicated in a column in the Washington Post, Paul Woodruff–our friend, colleague, and University of Texas emeritus professor of philosophy and classics–is nearing death after a long and fruitful life. As he also indicated, he plans to spend every day he has left sharing his considerable wisdom. His recent book Living Toward […] Ver
Justice Thomas, Conflicts of Interest, and the Supreme Court We’re thinking that the Supreme Court should schedule a movie night soon. The justices can pop some popcorn, snag some Jujubes, and then sit down to watch our videos on Conflicts of Interest. Supplemented by our Self-serving Bias video, we’d like to think that the jurists might learn a valuable lesson. Our optimism in this […] Ver
Triathlons and Doping: The Harm We Do When We Cheat “You’re not a bad person. You’re a good person who made a f**king terrible decision.” –Triathlete Jack Kelly to his friend Collin Chartier Triathletes are a special, often idealistic sort of athlete. In January 2022, Collin Chartier, expressed the sport’s ethic well: “The pursuit of excellence is what keeps me coming back. I may […] Ver
The Wirecard Fraud and Networks of the Oblivious Unfortunately, if you have an ethics blog you never run out of subjects to write about. Business scandals are especially plentiful. We’ve addressed, among others, the scandals at Boeing, Volkswagen, Ozy Media, McKinsey, WeWork, Robinhood, and Theranos. We haven’t yet addressed in any detail Sam Bankman-Fried and the FX scandal, Charlie Javice’s Frank fraud, Ruja […] Ver
Implicit Bias and “Knocking While Black” “Implicit bias” exists when we unconsciously hold attitudes towards others or associate stereotypes with them. (See our video: Implicit Bias) This is a controversial topic, but the evidence for the existence of implicit bias, both in the lab and in real life, keeps stacking up. There is substantial support for many forms of implicit bias, […] Ver
Ozy Media: Another “Fake It Until You Make It” Start-up Doesn’t Make It We’re getting just a little weary of writing “Start-ups Gone Bad” blog posts. The list is already substantial. We’ve profiled Theranos, of course. More than once, in fact. And then there’s WeWork, Robinhood, and the Fyre Festival. We’ve even written a more general blog post entitled “Lies and the Lying Entrepreneurs Who Tell Them”. This […] Ver
That’s Awesome! Why Awe-Inspiring Acts Inspire Moral Behavior Why do good people do bad things? Often, they are nudged on by the conformity bias. People have evolved to tend to take their cues as to how to dress, what to eat, and how to act from those around them, particularly in their in-group. Even people’s moral actions and judgments are heavily influenced by […] Ver