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- 2021
- Working Paper
False Signaling and Personal Moral Failings: Two Distinct Pathways to Hypocrisy with Unequal Moral Weight
By: Jillian J. Jordan and Roseanna Sommers
Moral engagement is a key feature of human nature: we hold moral values, condemn those who violate those values, and attempt to adhere to them ourselves. Yet moral engagement can make us appear hypocritical if we fail to behave morally. When does moral engagement risk... View Details
Keywords: Moral Engagement; Hypocrite; Dishonesty; Moral Values; Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Values and Beliefs
Jordan, Jillian J., and Roseanna Sommers. "False Signaling and Personal Moral Failings: Two Distinct Pathways to Hypocrisy with Unequal Moral Weight." Working Paper, January 2021.
- January–March 2020
- Article
Inaction and Decision Making in Moral Conflicts
By: Netta Barak-Corren and Max Bazerman
People regularly face conflicts in which obeying one moral requirement means transgressing another. Moral conflicts require difficult decisions: a person believes she should take both actions, but doing both is impossible. In this paper, we examine a common form of... View Details
Barak-Corren, Netta, and Max Bazerman. "Inaction and Decision Making in Moral Conflicts." Art. 100703. Special Issue on 21st Century Decision Making. Organizational Dynamics 49, no. 1 (January–March 2020).
- Article
Does Observability Amplify Sensitivity to Moral Frames? Evaluating a Reputation-Based Account of Moral Preferences
By: Valerio Capraro, Jillian J. Jordan and Ben Tappin
A growing body of work suggests that people are sensitive to moral framing in economic games involving prosociality, suggesting that people hold moral preferences for doing the “right thing”. What gives rise to these preferences? Here, we evaluate the explanatory power... View Details
Keywords: Moral Preferences; Moral Frames; Observability; Trustworthiness; Trust Game; Trade-off Game; Moral Sensibility; Reputation; Behavior; Trust
Capraro, Valerio, Jillian J. Jordan, and Ben Tappin. "Does Observability Amplify Sensitivity to Moral Frames? Evaluating a Reputation-Based Account of Moral Preferences." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 94 (May 2021).
- May 2024
- Article
Moral Thin-Slicing: Forming Moral Impressions from a Brief Glance
By: Julian De Freitas and Alon Hafri
Despite the modern rarity with which people are visual witness to moral transgressions involving
physical harm, such transgressions are more accessible than ever thanks to their availability on
social media and in the news. On one hand, the literature suggests that... View Details
Keywords: Moral Judgement; Thin Slices; Social Media; Fake News; Misinformation; Moral Sensibility; News; Behavior
De Freitas, Julian, and Alon Hafri. "Moral Thin-Slicing: Forming Moral Impressions from a Brief Glance." Art. 104588. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 112 (May 2024).
- 2021
- Working Paper
Does Observability Amplify Sensitivity to Moral Frames? Evaluating a Reputation-Based Account of Moral Preferences
By: Valerio Capraro, Jillian J. Jordan and Ben Tappin
A growing body of work suggests that people are sensitive to moral framing in economic games involving prosociality, suggesting that people hold moral preferences for doing the “right thing”. What gives rise to these preferences? Here, we evaluate the explanatory power... View Details
Keywords: Moral Preferences; Moral Frames; Observability; Trustworthiness; Trust Game; Trade-off Game; Moral Sensibility; Reputation; Behavior; Trust
Capraro, Valerio, Jillian J. Jordan, and Ben Tappin. "Does Observability Amplify Sensitivity to Moral Frames? Evaluating a Reputation-Based Account of Moral Preferences." Working Paper, January 2021.
- Article
Optimality Bias in Moral Judgment
By: Julian De Freitas and Samuel G.B. Johnson
We often make decisions with incomplete knowledge of their consequences. Might people nonetheless expect others to make optimal choices, despite this ignorance? Here, we show that people are sensitive to moral optimality: that people hold moral agents accountable... View Details
Keywords: Moral Judgment; Lay Decision Theory; Theory Of Mind; Causal Attribution; Moral Sensibility; Decision Making
De Freitas, Julian, and Samuel G.B. Johnson. "Optimality Bias in Moral Judgment." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 79 (November 2018): 149–163.
- 2017
- Article
True Happiness: The Role of Morality in the Concept of Happiness
By: Jonathan Phillips, Julian De Freitas, Christian Mott, June Gruber and Joshua Knobe
Recent scientific research has settled on a purely descriptive definition of happiness that is focused solely on agents' psychological states (high positive affect, low negative affect, high life satisfaction). In contrast to this understanding, recent research has... View Details
Phillips, Jonathan, Julian De Freitas, Christian Mott, June Gruber, and Joshua Knobe. "True Happiness: The Role of Morality in the Concept of Happiness." Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 146, no. 2 (2017): 165–181.
- Article
Kill or Die: Moral Judgment Alters Linguistic Coding of Causality
By: Julian De Freitas, Peter DiScioli, Jason Nemirow, Maxim Massenkoff and Steven Pinker
What is the relationship between the language people use to describe an event and their moral judgments?
We test the hypothesis that moral judgment and causative verbs rely on the same underlying mental
model of people’s actions. Experiment 1a finds that participants... View Details
Keywords: Moral Cognition; Moral Psychology; Causative Verbs; Trolley Problem; Argument Structure; Moral Sensibility; Judgments
De Freitas, Julian, Peter DiScioli, Jason Nemirow, Maxim Massenkoff, and Steven Pinker. "Kill or Die: Moral Judgment Alters Linguistic Coding of Causality." Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 43, no. 8 (August 2017): 1173–1182.
- Research Summary
Moral Muscle
By: Sandra J. Sucher
Can we get better at moral decision making? How is the capacity to exercise moral leadership developed? One answer to these questions is the notion of “moral muscle,” which is a combination of moral awareness (the ability to recognize situations that can be... View Details
- Article
Moral Traps: When Self-serving Attributions Backfire in Prosocial Behavior
By: Stephanie C. Lin, Julian Zlatev and Dale T. Miller
Two assumptions guide the current research. First, people's desire to see themselves as moral disposes them to make attributions that enhance or protect their moral self-image: When approached with a prosocial request, people are inclined to attribute their own... View Details
Keywords: Morality; Attributions; Decision Making; Prosocial Behavior; Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Perception
Lin, Stephanie C., Julian Zlatev, and Dale T. Miller. "Moral Traps: When Self-serving Attributions Backfire in Prosocial Behavior." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 70 (May 2017): 198–203.
- 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
Gino, F. "How Moral Flexibility Constrains Our Moral Compass." In Cheating, Corruption, and Concealment: The Roots of Dishonesty, edited by Jan-Willem van Prooijen and Paul A.M. van Lange. Cambridge University Press, 2016.
- Article
Does 'Could' Lead to Good? On the Road to Moral Insight
Dilemmas featuring competing moral imperatives are prevalent in organizations and are difficult to resolve. Whereas prior research has focused on how individuals adjudicate among these moral imperatives, we study the factors that influence when individuals find... View Details
Keywords: Moral Insight; Ethical Dilemma; Could Mindset; Divergent Thinking; Moral Sensibility; Creativity; Decision Choices and Conditions
Zhang, Ting, Francesca Gino, and Joshua D. Margolis. "Does 'Could' Lead to Good? On the Road to Moral Insight." Academy of Management Journal 61, no. 3 (June 2018): 857–895.
- June 1990 (Revised November 1991)
- Case
Morality and Consequences
Consists mainly of excerpts from Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill. Mill explains what utilitarianism is and gives his rationale for accepting it as a moral philosophy. View Details
Badaracco, Joseph L., Jr. "Morality and Consequences." Harvard Business School Case 390-206, June 1990. (Revised November 1991.)
- October 2011 (Revised December 2022)
- Background Note
Ethical Analysis: Moral Disengagement
By: Sandra J. Sucher and Celia Moore
Moral disengagement is a process that enables people to engage in negative behaviors, from small misdeeds to great atrocities, without believing that they are causing harm or doing wrong. When Conrad Black, the fallen Canadian mogul convicted of multiple counts of... View Details
Sucher, Sandra J., and Celia Moore. "Ethical Analysis: Moral Disengagement." Harvard Business School Background Note 612-043, October 2011. (Revised December 2022.)
- December 2020
- Article
Why Connect? Moral Consequences of Networking with a Promotion or Prevention Focus
By: F. Gino, T. Casciaro and M. Kouchaki
Networks are a key source of social capital for achieving goals in professional and personal settings. Yet, despite the clear benefits of having an extensive network, individuals often shy away from the opportunity to create new connections because engaging in... View Details
Keywords: Networking; Impurity; Morality; Motivation; Regulatory Focus; Networks; Attitudes; Moral Sensibility
Gino, F., T. Casciaro, and M. Kouchaki. "Why Connect? Moral Consequences of Networking with a Promotion or Prevention Focus." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 119, no. 6 (December 2020).
- 19 Nov 2007
- Lessons from the Classroom
Teaching The Moral Leader
What do Sir Thomas More, Chinua Achebe, and Sophocles have to offer today's business leaders? For MBA students in HBS professor Sandra Sucher's course, The Moral Leader, great literature helps them find their own definition of 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
Keywords: Concepts; Social Cognition; Moral Reasoning; True Self; Values; Weakness Of Will; Blame; Values and Beliefs; Identity; Moral Sensibility; Happiness
Newman, George E., Julian De Freitas, and Joshua Knobe. "Beliefs About the True Self Explain Asymmetries Based on Moral Judgment." Cognitive Science 39, no. 1 (2015): 96–125.
- August 2024
- Background Note
Your True Moral Compass
This note explores the concept of a "moral compass" for making difficult decisions in leadership roles. It argues that the standard view of a moral compass as a simple, internal guide is inadequate for complex situations. Instead, it proposes that our true moral... View Details
Badaracco, Joseph L. "Your True Moral Compass." Harvard Business School Background Note 325-034, August 2024.
- July 2022
- Article
When Alterations Are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals
By: Daniel H. Stein, Juliana Schroeder, Nicholas M. Hobson, Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton
From Catholics performing the sign of the cross since the 4th century to Americans reciting the Pledge of Allegiance since the 1890s, group rituals (i.e., predefined sequences of symbolic actions) have strikingly consistent features over time. Seven studies (N = 4,213)... View Details
Keywords: Ritual; Morality; Groups; Norms; Commitment; Groups and Teams; Values and Beliefs; Change; Moral Sensibility; Behavior
Stein, Daniel H., Juliana Schroeder, Nicholas M. Hobson, Francesca Gino, and Michael I. Norton. "When Alterations Are Violations: Moral Outrage and Punishment in Response to (Even Minor) Alterations to Rituals." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 123, no. 1 (July 2022): 123–153.
- Article
Your Visual System Provides All the Information You Need to Make Moral Judgments about Generic Visual Events
By: Julian De Freitas and George A. Alvarez
To what extent are people's moral judgments susceptible to subtle factors of which they are unaware? Here we show that we can change people’s moral judgments outside of their awareness by subtly biasing perceived causality. Specifically, we used subtle visual... View Details
De Freitas, Julian, and George A. Alvarez. "Your Visual System Provides All the Information You Need to Make Moral Judgments about Generic Visual Events." Cognition 178 (September 2018): 133–146.