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WHAT SITUATIONS INFLUENCE OUR CHOICES? - Coggle Diagram
WHAT SITUATIONS INFLUENCE OUR CHOICES?
WHEN ETHICS BECOMES INVISIBLE
Ethical Fading — Bazerman & Tenbrunsel
Business framing can hide the moral dimension
Ford Pinto: safety became a cost/performance issue
Moral Muteness — Ethics Unwrapped
People may notice a concern but avoid ethical language
Moral Decoupling — Howard Yu
Metrics can separate from the purpose they were meant to represent
Enron: the score became more important than the underlying reality
Overvaluing Outcomes — Bazerman & Tenbrunsel
A good result can hide a bad decision process
CONNECTIONS
Ethical fading to moral muteness to moral decoupling
Overvaluing outcomes and moral decoupling: a good score can hide a bad process
SOCIAL PRESSURE & GRADUAL DRIFT
Conformity Bias + Asch
Group behavior can replace independent judgment
If people conform when the answer is obvious, ambiguity can make this stronger
Obedience to Authority + Milgram
Authority can make people suppress their own judgment
"I was told to do it" does not remove responsibility
Incrementalism / Slippery Slope
Small compromise to repeated compromise to new normal
CONNECTIONS
Conformity = horizontal pressure
Obedience = vertical pressure
Conformity + obedience + incrementalism to normalization of misconduct
Incrementalism and moral decoupling: small deviations can become institutional norms
INCENTIVES, GOALS & CONFLICTS
Ill-Conceived Goals — Bazerman & Tenbrunsel
Narrow goals narrow attention
Sears: repair targets encouraged unnecessary repairs
Incentive Gaming — Ethics Unwrapped
People optimize the metric rather than the real purpose
Motivated Blindness — Bazerman & Tenbrunsel
Self-interest can change what people notice
Rating agencies: conflicts of interest weakened judgment
Indirect Blindness — Bazerman & Tenbrunsel
Wrongdoing feels less personal when carried out through others
CONNECTIONS
Goal to incentive to attention to behavior
Conflict of interest to motivated blindness
Incentive gaming and moral decoupling: the metric can replace the mission
TECHNOLOGY, POWER & RESPONSIBILITY
Hans Jonas — Technology and Responsibility
Modern technology increases scale, reach, and duration of human action
Consequences may appear later and affect future generations
Responsibility must begin before harm becomes visible
CONNECTIONS
Ethical fading asks: why do we fail to notice the moral issue now?
Jonas asks: what if the consequence cannot be seen yet?
Greater power makes unnoticed ethical failures more consequential
All branches: systems shape attention to attention shapes choices to repeated choices shape institutions