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Publications
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- Faculty Publications (388)
Morality
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- 2016
- Article
Vicarious Contagion Decreases Differentiation—and Comes with Costs
By: Ovul Sezer and Michael I. Norton
Baumeister et al. propose that individual differentiation is a crucial determinant of group success. We apply their model to processes lying in between the individual and the group—vicarious processes. We review literature in four domains—attitudes, emotions, moral... View Details
- August 2, 2016
- Article
Uncalculating Cooperation Is Used to Signal Trustworthiness
By: Jillian J. Jordan, Moshe Hoffman, Martin A. Nowak and David G. Rand
Humans frequently cooperate without carefully weighing the costs and benefits. As a result, people may wind up cooperating when it is not worthwhile to do so. Why risk making costly mistakes? Here, we present experimental evidence that reputation concerns provide an... View Details
- 2016
- Chapter
Dishonesty Explained: What Leads Moral People To Act Immorally
By: F. Gino and D. Ariely
The last two decades have witnessed what seems to be an increasing number of cases of dishonesty, from corporate corruption and employee misconduct to questionable behaviors during the financial crisis and individual acts of unethical behavior in many spheres of... View Details
- Summer 2016
- Article
Motivated Bayesians: Feeling Moral While Acting Egoistically
By: Francesca Gino, Michael I. Norton and Roberto A. Weber
A growing body of research yields ample evidence that individuals’ behavior often reflects an apparent concern for moral considerations. Using a broad definition of morality—to include varied non-egoistic motivations such as fairness, honesty, and efficiency as... View Details
- 2016
- Chapter
How Moral Flexibility Constrains Our Moral Compass
By: F. Gino
Cheating, fraud, deception, uncooperative actions, and many other forms of unethical behavior are among the greatest personal and societal challenges of our time. While the media commonly focuses on the most sensational scams (e.g., Enron, Bernard Madoff), less... View Details
- May 25, 2016
- Comment
How Consumers and Businesses are Reshaping Public Health
By: John A. Quelch
Healthcare and education are two issues in which citizens around the world, rich and poor, are passionately interested. It has long been appreciated that the way that a society treats its youngest and oldest members says much about its moral maturity. Economic... View Details
Keywords: Healthcare; Consumer Power; Innovation In Healthcare Delivery; Mobile Healthcare; Transition; Transformation; Trends; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Value and Value Chain; Health Care and Treatment; Information; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Independent Innovation and Invention; Innovation and Management; Innovation Leadership; Management; Marketing; Markets; Planning; Problems and Challenges; Biotechnology Industry; Chemical Industry; Consumer Products Industry; Distribution Industry; Fashion Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Green Technology Industry; Health Industry; Insurance Industry; Medical Devices and Supplies Industry; Pharmaceutical Industry; Public Administration Industry; South America; North and Central America; Middle East; Europe; Asia
- 2016
- Case
Advanced Leadership Pathways: Alberto Mora and the Costs and Consequences of Torture
By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Benjamin Summers
Alberto Mora's time as General Counsel of the Navy from 2001–2006 greatly influenced his mission to illuminate the policy consequences of torture. Mora's drive to restore the nation's awareness and conscience against torture was gaining traction. Prominent... View Details
Keywords: Leadership Skills; Torture; Costs And Consequences; Humane; Restraint; Human Dignity; Treatment Of Prisoners; Prison; Repression; Opposition; Revolution; Democracy; Communism; International Affairs; Public Service; September 11; War On Terror; Operation Enduring Freedom; Guantanamo; Cuba; Coalition; Working Group; Cruelty; Interrogation; Memorandum; American Law; Authority; Authoritative; Quadrennial Defense Review; National Defense Authorization Act; Public Engagement; Advocacy; Law; Accountability; Center For The Victims Of Torture; Human Rights; Public Policy; Legality; Morality; Legal System; Tactical Military Operations; West Point; NGO; Human Rights First; American Civil Liberties Union; Human Rights Watch; Amnesty International; Constitution Project; Center For Constitutional Rights; Strategic Military Effect; National Security; Weapon; Terrorism; Prisoners Of War; Abu Ghraib; Pentagon; Ethics; Moral Sensibility; Leadership; Rights; Policy; Public Opinion; United States
- 2016
- Teaching Note
Advanced Leadership Pathways: Shelly London and Ethics Education
By: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Tessa Natanay Hamilton and Ai-Ling Jamila Malone
Teaching Note for Case 313-028. Following a successful career as a Senior Vice President, Vice President, and Chief Communications Officer at two large corporate companies, Shelly London became a Harvard Advanced Leadership Fellow. During her fellowship she set out to... View Details
- February 2016
- Article
Positive and Normative Judgments Implicit in U.S. Tax Policy, and the Costs of Unequal Growth and Recessions
By: Benjamin B. Lockwood and Matthew Weinzierl
Calculating the welfare implications of changes to economic policy or shocks to the economy requires economists to decide on a normative criterion. One way to make that decision is to elicit the relevant moral criteria from real-world policy choices, converting a... View Details
- January 2016
- Article
Blind Loyalty?: How Group Loyalty Makes Us See Evil or Engage in It
By: John Angus D. Hildreth, Francesca Gino and Max Bazerman
Loyalty often drives corruption. Corporate scandals, political machinations, and sports cheating highlight how loyalty's pernicious nature manifests in collusion, conspiracy, cronyism, nepotism, and other forms of cheating. Yet loyalty is also touted as an ethical... View Details
- 2016
- Panel Discussion
Mutual Constraints in Moral Cognition and Language
By: J. De Freitas, P. DeScioli, J. Nemirow, M. Massenkof and S. Pinker
- Article
Ethical Blind Spots: Explaining Unintentional Unethical Behavior
By: Ovul Sezer, F. Gino and Max H. Bazerman
People view themselves as more ethical, fair, and objective than others, yet often act against their moral compass. This paper reviews recent research on unintentional unethical behavior and provides an overview of the conditions under which ethical blind spots lead... View Details
- Article
Three Principles to REVISE People's Unethical Behavior
By: Shahar Ayal, Francesca Gino, Rachel Barkan and Dan Ariely
Dishonesty and unethical behavior are widespread in the public and private sectors and cause immense annual losses. For instance, estimates of U.S. annual losses indicate $1 trillion paid in bribes, $270 billion lost due to unreported income, as well as $42 billion... View Details
- 2019
- Working Paper
Self-Interest: The Economist's Straitjacket
By: Robert Simons
This paper examines contemporary economic theories that focus on the design and management of business organizations. In the first part of the paper, a taxonomy is presented that describes the different types of economists interested in this subject—market economists,... View Details
Keywords: Self-interest; Economist; Moral Philosophers; Regulation; Capture; Organization Design; Economy Theory; Organization Theory; Management Theory; Commitment; Controls; Governance; Customers; Conflict of Interests; Business or Company Management; Competition; Organizational Design; Business Education; Agency Theory; Economics; Theory; Boundaries
- October 2015
- Teaching Note
1996 Welfare Reform in the United States
- Article
Behavioral Hazard in Health Insurance
By: Katherine Baicker, Sendhil Mullainathan and Joshua Schwartzstein
A fundamental implication of standard moral hazard models is overuse of low-value medical care because copays are lower than costs. In these models, the demand curve alone can be used to make welfare statements, a fact relied on by much empirical work. There is ample... View Details
- 2015
- Article
Beliefs About the True Self Explain Asymmetries Based on Moral Judgment
By: George E. Newman, Julian De Freitas and Joshua Knobe
Past research has identified a number of asymmetries based on moral judgments. Beliefs about
(a) what a person values, (b) whether a person is happy, (c) whether a person has shown weakness
of will, and (d) whether a person deserves praise or blame seem to depend... View Details
- September 2015 (Revised January 2023)
- Background Note
Ethical Analysis: Situation versus Character
When we think of human behavior, especially from a moral perspective, we often rely on explanations based on character. We think that good decisions and responsible behavior require people with integrity and strong character and that immoral behavior originates within... View Details