Behavioral ethics

Behavioral ethics is a new field of social scientific research that seeks to understand how people actually behave when confronted with ethical dilemmas.[1] It refers to behavior that is judged according to generally accepted norms of behavior.[2]

Research

There are experiments that can be linked to behavioral ethics. The Trolley problem and the Prisoner's dilemma both place individuals in decision-making situations that carry ethical questions. In each, an individual is asked to make a decision that affects another person. In the prisoner's dilemma, the principles of Reciprocity (social psychology) and Cooperation come into play, but not all who participate behave in the same manner. In the Trolley problem an individual has to choose which group of people to save. Both of these experiments shed light on how people behave when confronted with ethical dilemmas.

References

  1. Bazerman, Max H. and Tenbrunsel, Ann E. "Blind Spots: Why we fail to do what's right and what to do about it". Princeton University Press, 2011, p. 4.
  2. Trevino, Linda K., Weaver, Gary R., and Reynolds, Scott J. "Behavioral Ethics in Organizations: A review". Journal of Management, 2006, p. 952.