Productive discussions need a common vocabulary.
Ethics Defined is an on-line library of 51 key ethics terms and concepts, animated in two-minute videos.
Many scholars have contributed to these definitions, which are supported by research and studies.
We offer this glossary in an effort to provide a common basis for enlightened conversation in the realm of ethics and leadership.
Altruism is when we behave selflessly and value the welfare of others.
Behavioral Ethics studies why and how people make the choices that they do.
Bounded Ethicality means that people are limited in their ability to make ethical choices.
Conflict of Interest arises when our interest conflicts with another’s to whom we owe a duty.
The Conformity Bias describes people’s tendency to take their behavioral cues from those around them.
Consequentialism is an ethical theory that judges an action’s moral correctness by its consequences.
Corporate Social Responsibility involves going beyond minimum requirements to protect the environment and benefit society generally.
Corruption is the dishonest conduct for personal gain by people in power.
Deontology is an ethical theory that uses rules to discern the moral course of action.
Diffusion of Responsibility occurs when people fail to take action because they assume that since others nearby are not acting, action is not appropriate.
Ethical Fading occurs when people focus on some other aspect of a decision so that the ethical dimensions of the choice fade from view.
Ethics refers to both moral principles and to the study of people’s moral obligations in society.
A Fiduciary Duty is a legal obligation to act in the best interest of another rather than one’s self.
Framing describes how people’s responses to ethical (and other) issues are affected by the frame of reference through which they view the issues.
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.
Groupthink occurs when people’s desire to maintain group loyalty trumps all other factors, including abiding by their personal code of ethics.
Hedonism is a form ofconsequentialism that approves of actions that produce pleasure and avoid pain.
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.
Incrementalism is the slippery slope whereby people’s actions evolve from small, technical violations to larger, more significant wrongs.
Integrity is an indispensable moral virtue that includes acting with honesty, fairness, and decency.
Justice is a complicated concept that at its core requires fairness.
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.
Moral Absolutism is a form ofdeontology that asserts that certain actions are intrinsically right or wrong.
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.
Moral Cognition is the study by psychologists, neuroscientists, and others of how people make moral judgments and choices.
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.
Moral Equilibrium is the notion that we constantly compare our self-image with our actual conduct and adjust our actions accordingly. If we haven’t been living up to our own moral standards, we may feel the need to do something good. If we feel particularly virtuous, we may give ourselves permission to depart from our moral standards.
Moral Imagination is creatively imagining the full range of options while making moral decisions.
Moral Muteness is remaining silent when observing immoral behavior.
Moral Myopia is the difficulty people sometimes have in clearly seeing ethical issues and ethical challenges.
Moral Philosophy studies what is right and wrong, and related philosophical issues.
Moral Pluralism is the notion that various conflictingvalues may all be equally valid and worthy of respect.
Moral Psychology encompasses both the philosophical and psychological study of the development of the moral sense and related matters.
Moral Reasoning is the branch of philosophy that attempts to answer questions with moral dimensions.
Moral Relativism asserts that moral standards are culturally-defined and therefore it may be impossible to determine what is truly right or wrong.
Morals are society’s accepted principles of right conduct that enable people to live cooperatively.
Neuroethics uses the tools of neuroscience to examine how we make ethical choices. It is also the investigation of the ethics of neuroscience.
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.
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.
Prosocial Behavior occurs when people voluntarily help others.
Rationalizations are the excuses people give themselves for failing to live up to their own ethical standards.
Role morality describes how people sometimes apply different ethical standards depending on what role they seem themselves playing.
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.
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.
A Subject of Moral Worth is any person or entity that deserves people’s moral consideration.
Sustainability is living to meet the needs of the present generation without depleting the resources that future generations will need to meet their needs.
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.
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that asserts that right and wrong are best determined by focusing on outcomes of actions and choices.
Values are society’s shared beliefs about what is good or bad and how people should act.
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.
Virtue Ethics is a normative philosophical approach that urges people to live a moral life by cultivating virtuous habits.
