Blind Spots

1. Ethical Blind Spots: The Gap Between Intention and Action

This book aims to alert you to your ethical blind spots so that you are aware of that gap—the gap between who you want to be and the person you actually are.

Overestimating Ethicality. Most people believe they are more ethical than their peers, creating a disconnect between their perceived and actual behavior. This "holier-than-thou" effect highlights a critical blind spot: our inability to accurately assess our own ethicality. This book aims to expose these blind spots, helping individuals recognize the gap between their desired ethical selves and their real-world actions.

Behavioral Ethics. Traditional approaches to ethics often assume that individuals consciously weigh ethical considerations against other factors. However, behavioral ethics reveals that unethical behavior often stems from unintentional cognitive biases and psychological processes. By understanding these hidden influences, we can begin to bridge the gap between our intentions and our actions.

Closing the Gap. Recognizing our ethical blind spots is the first step toward narrowing the gap between our intended and actual ethical behavior. By understanding the psychological processes that lead to unethical choices, we can develop strategies to mitigate their influence and create a more ethical life, organization, and society.

2. Traditional Ethics Training Falls Short

Ethics interventions have failed and will continue to fail because they are predicated on a false assumption: that individuals recognize an ethical dilemma when it is presented to them.

The Flaw in Traditional Approaches. Traditional ethics training often assumes that individuals consciously recognize ethical dilemmas and make deliberate choices between right and wrong. However, this approach overlooks the subtle, often unconscious, psychological factors that influence our behavior. As a result, ethics training often fails to translate into real-world ethical improvements.

Ethicists as a Test Case. Research suggests that even ethicists, who dedicate their lives to studying morality, do not necessarily behave more ethically than others. This finding underscores the limitations of traditional ethics training, which focuses on normative principles rather than the psychological realities of ethical decision-making.

A New Paradigm. To effectively improve ethical behavior, we need to move beyond traditional approaches and embrace the insights of behavioral ethics. This involves understanding the cognitive biases, social pressures, and organizational factors that can lead even well-intentioned individuals to make unethical choices.

3. Bounded Ethicality: Unintentional Unethical Behavior

Bounded ethicality comes into play when individuals make decisions that harm others and when that harm is inconsistent with these decision makers’ conscious beliefs and preferences.

Cognitive Limitations. Bounded ethicality refers to the systematic ways in which our cognitive limitations can lead us to engage in unethical behavior without our conscious awareness. These limitations can include biases, heuristics, and framing effects that distort our perception of ethical dilemmas.

In-Group Favoritism. A common manifestation of bounded ethicality is in-group favoritism, where we unconsciously favor individuals who are similar to us. This can lead to unintentional discrimination against those who are different, even when we consciously believe in fairness and equality.

Overclaiming Credit. Another example is the tendency to overclaim credit for our contributions to a group effort, leading to conflict and inequitable distribution of resources. This bias stems from our egocentric perspective, which makes it difficult to accurately assess the contributions of others.

4. The "Want" Self vs. The "Should" Self

When it comes time to make a decision, our thoughts are dominated by thoughts of how we want to behave; thoughts of how we should behave disappear.

Internal Conflict. We often experience a conflict between our "want" self, which is driven by emotions and self-interest, and our "should" self, which is guided by reason and ethical principles. This conflict can lead to a disconnect between our intentions and our actions.

Temporal Dynamics. The "should" self tends to dominate our thinking before and after we make a decision, while the "want" self often takes over at the moment of decision. This explains why we may predict that we will act ethically, but then succumb to temptation in the heat of the moment.

Ethical Fading. At the time of decision, ethical considerations can fade from our awareness, leading us to focus solely on the immediate benefits of a particular choice. This ethical fading can be exacerbated by time pressure, stress, and other situational factors.

5. Motivated Blindness: Overlooking Others' Unethical Behavior

The term motivated blindness describes the common failure of people to notice others’ unethical behavior when seeing that behavior would harm the observer.

Self-Interest and Perception. We are more likely to overlook the unethical behavior of others when it is not in our best interest to notice it. This motivated blindness can be driven by financial incentives, loyalty to a group, or a desire to avoid conflict.

Auditor Independence. A classic example is the failure of auditors to detect fraud at companies that are also their consulting clients. The auditors' desire to maintain lucrative consulting contracts can blind them to the unethical accounting practices of their clients.

Steroid Use in Baseball. Similarly, the financial benefits of high-performing players may have led team owners and league officials to turn a blind eye to the widespread use of steroids, even when the evidence was readily apparent.

6. Institutional Corruption: A Societal Failure

Institutional corruption is a condition that exists when our institutions (governments, corporations, and not-for-profits) formalize a set of policies and practices that weaken the effectiveness of society and the public’s trust in these institutions, even if no law is broken.

Systemic Problems. Institutional corruption occurs when the policies and practices of an organization or government are distorted to benefit a small group of individuals or entities, even if no laws are broken. This can lead to a decline in public trust and a misallocation of resources.

Tobacco Industry. The tobacco industry's decades-long campaign to downplay the health risks of smoking is a prime example of institutional corruption. By funding biased research and lobbying against regulations, the industry was able to delay meaningful action to protect public health.

Auditing Industry. The U.S. auditing system, with its inherent conflicts of interest, also exemplifies institutional corruption. The failure to implement meaningful reforms has allowed accounting firms to prioritize profits over the public interest, leading to financial scandals and a loss of investor confidence.

7. Self-Awareness: The Key to Ethical Improvement

To improve our ethical judgment, we need to understand and accept the limitations of the human mind.

Recognizing Biases. The first step toward ethical improvement is to become aware of the cognitive biases and psychological processes that can lead us astray. This includes understanding our susceptibility to motivated blindness, ethical fading, and the influence of the "want" self.

Accurate Reflection. It is crucial to develop strategies for accurately reflecting on our past behavior, even when it is uncomfortable. This may involve seeking feedback from trusted sources, examining our motivations, and challenging our rationalizations.

System 2 Thinking. Cultivating System 2 thinking, which is slower, more deliberate, and more logical, can help us to override our intuitive, often biased, System 1 responses. This involves taking the time to carefully consider the ethical implications of our decisions.

8. Organizational Culture: The Foundation of Ethical Behavior

All the laws in the world cannot ensure that corporate executives will observe them day in and day out.

Beyond Formal Systems. While formal ethics programs are important, they are often overshadowed by the informal culture of an organization. This culture, which is shaped by stories, norms, and leadership behavior, can have a far greater impact on employee ethics.

Identifying Informal Values. To create a more ethical organization, leaders must identify and address the informal values that are driving employee behavior. This involves understanding the pressures, incentives, and expectations that shape decision-making at all levels.

Ethical Sinkholes. Organizations should identify "ethical sinkholes," areas characterized by uncertainty, time pressure, and isolation, where unethical behavior is more likely to occur. By focusing on these areas, leaders can target their efforts to improve ethical decision-making.

9. Nudging Toward Ethical Decisions: A Societal Imperative

As concerned members of society, all of us want the individuals and organizations that represent us to behave ethically.

Choice Architecture. Governments and organizations can use the principles of behavioral economics to "nudge" people toward more ethical choices. This involves structuring choices in a way that makes it easier for individuals to make decisions that are in their own best interest and the best interest of society.

Changing Defaults. One powerful nudge is to change the default option. For example, making organ donation the default, rather than requiring people to opt-in, can dramatically increase donation rates.

Structuring Information. The way information is presented can also influence ethical behavior. For example, presenting fuel efficiency in terms of gallons per mile, rather than miles per gallon, can help consumers make more informed choices about fuel consumption.

Last updated: April 28, 2025