Appropriation & Attribution Attribution is giving credit where credit is due. Appropriation is the complex borrowing of ideas, images, symbols, sounds, and identity from others. View
All is Not Relative Relativism is the belief that a harmful act is ‘right’ if the perpetrator claims it is ‘right,’ but what is right and what is wrong is not always relative. View
Being Your Best Self, Part 1: Moral Awareness Moral awareness is the ability to detect and appreciate the ethical aspects of a decision that one must make. View
Being Your Best Self, Part 2: Moral Decision Making Moral decision making is the ability to produce a reasonable and defensible answer to an ethical question. View
Being Your Best Self, Part 3: Moral Intent Moral intent is the desire to act ethically when facing a moral decision and to overcome the rationalization to not be ethical “just this time.” View
Being Your Best Self, Part 4: Moral Action Moral action means transforming the intent to do the right thing into reality. This involves moral ownership, moral efficacy, and moral courage. View
Bounded Ethicality Bounded ethicality explains how social pressures and psychological processes cause us to behave in ways that are inconsistent with our own values. View
Causing Harm Causing harm explores the types of harm that may be caused to people or groups and the potential reasons we may have for justifying these harms. View
Cognitive Dissonance Cognitive dissonance is the psychological discomfort that we feel when our minds entertain two contradictory concepts at the same time. View
Conflict of Interest Conflict of interest arises when we have incentives that conflict with our professional duties and responsibilities in ways that harm others and society. View
Conformity Bias Conformity bias describes our tendency to take cues for proper behavior from the actions of others rather than exercise our own independent judgment. View
Ethical Fading Ethical fading occurs when we are so focused on other aspects of a decision that its ethical dimensions fade from view. View
Ethical Leadership, Part 1: Perilous at the Top The moral example leaders set has a major impact on the behavior of others. Despite career success, leaders are particularly vulnerable to ethical lapses. View
Ethical Leadership, Part 2: Best Practices Psychological research provides guidance as to how leaders can create a workplace culture that encourages ethical behavior by employees. View
Framing Framing describes how our responses to situations, including our ethical judgments, are impacted simply by how those situations are posed or viewed. View
Fundamental Attribution Error Fundamental attribution error describes how, when judging others’ actions, we tend to give too much causal weight to their character and not enough to the circumstances in which they acted. View
Fundamental Moral Unit When making ethical decisions, the one consideration that a theory favors over all other considerations is called the Fundamental Moral Unit. View
Implicit Bias Implicit bias exists when people unconsciously hold attitudes toward others or associate stereotypes with them. View
Incentive Gaming Incentive gaming, or “gaming the system,” refers to when we figure out ways to increase our rewards for performance without actually improving our performance. View
Incrementalism Referred to as the slippery slope, incrementalism describes how we unconsciously lower our ethical standards over time through small changes in behavior. View
Intro to Behavioral Ethics Behavioral Ethics investigates why people make the ethical (and unethical) decisions that they do in order to gain insights into how people can improve their ethical decision-making and behavior. View
Legal Rights & Ethical Responsibilities The relationship between laws and ethics is not always clear. Although we may have a legal right to do something, this does not necessarily mean it is ethically justified. View
Loss Aversion We hate losses about twice as much as we enjoy gains, meaning we are more likely to act unethically to avoid a loss than to secure a gain. This phenomenon is known as loss aversion. View
Moral Agent & Subject of Moral Worth A moral agent is capable of acting with reference to right and wrong, and has the power to intentionally cause harm to another. A moral subject is anything that can be harmed. View
Moral Emotions Moral emotions are the feelings and intuitions that play a major role in most of our ethical decision making and actions. View
Moral Equilibrium When we do something good we get to thinking of ourselves as pretty good people, and can then give ourselves license to fail to live up to our own ethical standards. This phenomenon is known as moral equilibrium. View
Moral Imagination Moral imagination is our ability to think outside the box and envision ways to be both ethical and successful. View
Moral Muteness Moral muteness is when we communicate in ways that obscure our moral beliefs and commitments, or don’t voice moral sentiments at all. View
Moral Myopia Moral myopia is a distortion of moral vision that keeps ethical issues from coming clearly into focus. View
Obedience to Authority Obedience to authority describes our tendency to please authority figures. We may place too much emphasis on that goal and, consciously or subconsciously, subordinate the goal of acting ethically. View
Overconfidence Bias The overconfidence bias is our tendency to be more confident in our ability to act ethically than is objectively justified by our abilities and moral character. View
Representation Media representations of individuals or groups can hurt by reflecting stereotypes and mistaken beliefs or can help by being truthful and inclusive. View
Role Morality Role morality is the tendency we have to use different moral standards for the different roles we play in society. View
Self-serving Bias The self-serving bias causes us to see things in ways that support our best interests and our pre-existing points of view. View
Systematic Moral Analysis Systematic moral analysis is a tool that helps us to think through ethically complex situations. View
Tangible & Abstract Tangible and abstract describes how we react more to vivid, immediate inputs than to ones removed in time and space, meaning we can pay insufficient attention to the adverse consequences our actions have on others. View