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McCombs School of Business

Video Series

Concepts Unwrapped: Sports Edition

The high stakes and intense competition athletes face in the world of sports can present ethical challenges. These short, research-based videos aimed at athletes introduce some of the ethical traps that the human mind can lay for us.

 

We created this series in collaboration with UT Athletics, and are grateful to the UT athletes who participated. You can learn more about them here.

Intro to Behavioral Ethics: Sports Edition

Intro to Behavioral Ethics: Sports Edition

Outside pressures, internal biases, decision-making shortcuts, and other factors can lead us to make unethical choices. As research in sports psychology has improved athletic performance, research in behavioral ethics can improve our moral performance.

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Conformity Bias: Sports Edition

Conformity Bias: Sports Edition

We have a tendency to conform our behavior to the actions of those around us. In sports, “everybody’s doing it” is a remarkably common justification for unethical behavior.

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Framing: Sports Edition

Framing: Sports Edition

Our frame of reference can impact our understanding of the facts and influence our moral decisions. In sports, maintaining ethics in our frame of reference can be challenging, especially when winning is the goal.

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Incrementalism: Sports Edition

Incrementalism: Sports Edition

Small incremental changes in our behavior can lead us to unconsciously lower our ethical standards over time. Doing something bad one time makes it easier to rationalize our actions the next time we act unethically.

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Loss Aversion: Sports Edition

Loss Aversion: Sports Edition

We tend to detest losses much more than we enjoy wins. This means we are more likely to act unethically to avoid losing something we already have, like a spot on the team, than we would to gain it in the first place.

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Obedience to Authority: Sports Edition

Obedience to Authority: Sports Edition

We have a natural tendency to want to please those in charge. Athletes especially have a self-serving incentive to follow their coaches’ instructions. This makes it easy to rationalize unethical behavior as simply “doing as we’re told.”

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Overconfidence Bias: Sports Edition

Overconfidence Bias: Sports Edition

Athletes – like everyone else – are overconfident in their abilities. It can be counterproductive to be overconfident about our athletic ability, but overconfidence in our morality can cause us to act without any real ethical reflection.

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Role Morality: Sports Edition

Role Morality: Sports Edition

Our moral standards are often determined by the role we see ourselves playing at the time. This can lead us to make decisions and act very differently in the moral realm depending on our role.

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Tangible & Abstract: Sports Edition

Tangible & Abstract: Sports Edition

We tend to be more strongly influenced by what is happening here and now. We often fail to consider the consequences of our choices for the future or the impact of our actions on those we don’t know.

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