AI Ethics AI ethics focuses on ensuring that AI is developed and deployed responsibly, promoting fairness, transparency, accountability, and societal well-being while minimizing harm. View
Algorithmic Bias Algorithmic bias occurs when AI algorithms reflect human prejudices due to biased data or design, leading to unfair or discriminatory outcomes. View
Applied Ethics Applied ethics, also called practical ethics, is the application of ethics to real-world problems. View
Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) describes machines that can think and learn like human beings. AI is continually evolving, and includes subfields such as machine learning and generative AI. View
Bounded Ethicality Bounded Ethicality means that people are limited in their ability to make ethical choices. View
Cognitive Bias Cognitive biases are errors in thinking that affect people’s decision-making in virtually every situation. View
Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive dissonance is the mental stress people feel when they hold two contradictory ideas in their mind at the same time. View
Confirmation Bias Confirmation bias is our tendency to seek out or interpret information that supports our pre-existing beliefs, expectations, or hypotheses. View
Conflict of Interest Conflict of Interest arises when our interest conflicts with another’s to whom we owe a duty. View
Conformity Bias The Conformity Bias describes people’s tendency to take their behavioral cues from those around them. View
Consequentialism Consequentialism is an ethical theory that judges an action’s moral correctness by its consequences. View
Corporate Social Responsibility Corporate Social Responsibility involves going beyond minimum requirements to protect the environment and benefit society generally. View
Deontology Deontology is an ethical theory that uses rules to discern the moral course of action. View
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. View
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. View
Ethics Ethics refers to both moral principles and to the study of people’s moral obligations in society. View
Fiduciary Duty A Fiduciary Duty is a legal obligation to act in the best interest of another rather than one’s self. View
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. View
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. View
Groupthink Groupthink occurs when people’s desire to maintain group loyalty trumps all other factors, including abiding by their personal code of ethics. View
Halo Effect The halo effect is a cognitive bias where a positive impression of one trait of a person or company leads us to assume all their other traits are also positive. View
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. View
Hedonism Hedonism is a form of consequentialism that approves of actions that produce pleasure and avoid pain. View
Implicit Bias Having implicit bias means we unconsciously hold attitudes towards others or associate negative stereotypes with them. View
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. View
Incrementalism Incrementalism is the slippery slope whereby people’s actions evolve from small, technical violations to larger, more significant wrongs. View
Integrity Integrity is an indispensable moral virtue that includes acting with honesty, fairness, and decency. View
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. View
Mercy “Mercy” means leniency and compassion. It can also include kind and compassionate behavior toward others. View
Moral Absolutism Moral Absolutism is a form of deontology that asserts that certain actions are intrinsically right or wrong. View
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. View
Moral Cognition Moral Cognition is the study by psychologists, neuroscientists, and others of how people make moral judgments and choices. View
Moral Disengagement Moral disengagement describes the mechanisms we use to convince ourselves that our actions which violate our moral standards are permissible. View
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. View
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. View
Moral Hazard Moral hazard describes the phenomenon whereby those who make decisions bear no risk if the decision is poor and things go wrong. View
Moral Imagination Moral Imagination is creatively imagining the full range of options while making moral decisions. View
Moral Injury Moral injury is the lasting psychological harm we experience when we commit, or learn of actions, that are inconsistent with our moral beliefs. View
Moral Myopia Moral Myopia is the difficulty people sometimes have in clearly seeing ethical issues and ethical challenges. View
Moral Philosophy Moral Philosophy studies what is right and wrong, and related philosophical issues. View
Moral Pluralism Moral Pluralism is the notion that various conflicting values may all be equally valid and worthy of respect. View
Moral Psychology Moral Psychology encompasses both the philosophical and psychological study of the development of the moral sense and related matters. View
Moral Reasoning Moral Reasoning is the branch of philosophy that attempts to answer questions with moral dimensions. View
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. View
Morals Morals are society’s accepted principles of right conduct that enable people to live cooperatively. View
Motivated Blindness Motivated blindness describes the often-unconscious tendency we have to fail to notice the wrongdoing of others when noticing it would be inconsistent with our own self-interest. View
Neuroethics Neuroethics uses the tools of neuroscience to examine how we make ethical choices. It is also the investigation of the ethics of neuroscience. View
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. View
Optimism Bias The optimism bias can lead us to neglect responsible actions and moral accountability by overestimating positive outcomes and underestimating negative ones. View
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. View
Rationalizations Rationalizations are the excuses people give themselves for failing to live up to their own ethical standards. View
Role Morality Role morality describes how people sometimes apply different ethical standards depending on what role they see themselves playing. View
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. View
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. View
Subject of Moral Worth A Subject of Moral Worth is any person or entity that deserves people’s moral consideration. View
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. View
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. View
Technological Somnambulism Technological somnambulism refers to the unreflective, blind creation and adoption of new technologies without consideration for their long-term societal and ethical impacts. View
Tragedy of the Commons The Tragedy of the Commons describes a situation where a shared resource is exploited – because of individual self-interest – and damages overall social welfare. View
Utilitarianism Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that asserts that right and wrong are best determined by focusing on outcomes of actions and choices. View
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. View
Virtue Ethics Virtue Ethics is a normative philosophical approach that urges people to live a moral life by cultivating virtuous habits. View