Being Your Best Self, Part 2: Moral Decision Making | Concepts Unwrapped

00:06:56
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ2l89wEIwM

Summary

TLDRLe professeur Robert Prentice discute de la prise de décision morale, expliquant qu'elle commence par la reconnaissance d'une dimension éthique dans nos actions. Souvent, les crimes en col blanc ne posent pas de dilemmes moraux complexes mais sont clairement mauvais. Les influences psychologiques, telles que les biais de complaisance, peuvent affecter nos décisions morales. Ces décisions sont souvent automatiques et guidées par l'instinct et les émotions plutôt que par un raisonnement rationnel. Pour prendre de meilleures décisions éthiques, il est crucial de reconnaître et de contrer ces biais. Des exemples tels que l'influence des intérêts personnels sur le jugement illustrent ce point. Être conscient de ces biais, s'entourer de personnes ayant de bonnes valeurs et suivre un code de conduite professionnel peuvent aider à faire des choix plus éthiques. S'assurer que les autres perçoivent nos décisions comme objectives est également essentiel pour surmonter ces biais et prendre des décisions justes.

Takeaways

  • 🧠 La prise de conscience des dimensions morales est essentielle pour des décisions éthiques.
  • 🔍 La prise de décision morale exige souvent de surmonter des biais instinctifs.
  • ⚖️ De nombreux crimes en col blanc sont des choix éthiquement évidents et erronés.
  • 💡 Les décisions éthiques sont souvent motivées par des émotions, pas par un raisonnement.
  • 💥 Le biais de complaisance pousse à des choix favorables à soi-même, souvent de façon inconsciente.
  • 🤝 Connaître le biais de complaisance peut aider à le minimiser.
  • 👀 L'objectivité perçue par les autres est cruciale pour la confiance dans nos décisions.
  • 📜 Le code de conduite professionnel vise à réduire les conflits d'intérêts.
  • 🔗 Les cultures locales peuvent influencer fortement les décisions éthiques.
  • 👫 S'entourer de personnes éthiques aide à prendre de meilleures décisions.

Timeline

  • 00:00:00 - 00:06:56

    Prendre conscience qu'un problème présente une dimension morale est la première étape pour être le meilleur de soi-même. La deuxième étape est la prise de décision morale : être capable de décider quelle est la bonne voie d'action une fois le problème éthique identifié. Cela peut être difficile, car plusieurs options peuvent sembler moralement défendables, ou aucune ne semble acceptable. Cependant, la plupart des crimes en col blanc, comme la fraude ou le commerce d'initiés, ne posent pas de dilemmes éthiques insurmontables ; ils sont évidemment mauvais. Le problème réside souvent dans les influences psychologiques, organisationnelles et sociales qui nous poussent à faire des choix éthiques sous-optimaux.

Mind Map

Video Q&A

  • Qu'est-ce que la prise de décision morale ?

    C'est la capacité de choisir la bonne action lorsqu'un problème éthique est identifié.

  • Pourquoi est-il difficile de prendre des décisions morales ?

    Parce que plusieurs options peuvent sembler moralement défendables ou aucune ne semble acceptable.

  • Quel est le principal obstacle à la prise de décision éthique selon Prentice ?

    Les influences psychologiques, organisationnelles et sociales qui biaisent nos choix.

  • Comment l'intuition influence-t-elle nos décisions éthiques ?

    Nos décisions sont souvent automatiques et instinctives, motivées par les émotions plutôt que par le raisonnement.

  • Qu'est-ce que le biais de complaisance ?

    C'est un biais qui nous pousse à faire des choix qui favorisent notre intérêt personnel de manière inconsciente.

  • Comment peut-on combattre le biais de complaisance ?

    Prendre conscience de ce biais et s'efforcer de voir les choses de manière objective peut aider à le minimiser.

  • Quel rôle joue le code de conduite professionnel ?

    Il aide à minimiser les conflits d'intérêts et l'impact inconscient sur nos décisions.

  • Pourquoi l'objectivité est-elle importante dans la prise de décision éthique ?

    Parce que les tiers objectifs sont plus susceptibles de faire confiance à nos jugements si nous agissons de manière perçue comme objective.

  • Comment la culture influence-t-elle les décisions éthiques ?

    Les normes culturelles, comme la présence de pots-de-vin, peuvent rendre difficiles la prise de décisions éthiques.

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  • 00:00:09
    [Professor Robert Prentice] Being aware that an issue presents a moral dimension
  • 00:00:11
    is step one in being your best self.
  • 00:00:17
    Step 2 is Moral Decision Making.
  • 00:00:24
    Moral decision making is having the ability to decide which is the right course of action
  • 00:00:29
    once we have spotted the ethical issue.
  • 00:00:34
    Sometimes this can be very difficult, as multiple options may seem morally defensible,
  • 00:00:39
    or, perhaps, no options seem morally acceptable.
  • 00:00:43
    Sometimes people face difficult ethical choices, and it is hard to fault them too much for
  • 00:00:48
    making a good faith choice that they think is right but turns out to be wrong.
  • 00:00:56
    However, most white collar crimes -- over-billing, insider trading, paying bribes,
  • 00:01:02
    fudging earnings numbers, hiding income from the IRS, and most other activities that lead people to end up
  • 00:01:08
    doing the perp walk on the front page of the business section -- do not present intractable
  • 00:01:14
    ethical conundrums.
  • 00:01:16
    They are obviously wrong.
  • 00:01:18
    The problem is not that we haven't read enough Kant or John Stuart Mill.
  • 00:01:25
    More commonly, the problem is that we are unaware of psychological, organizational,
  • 00:01:31
    and social influences that can cause us to make less than optimal ethical choices.
  • 00:01:37
    Our ethical decision making is often automatic and instinctive.
  • 00:01:41
    It involves emotions, not reasoning.
  • 00:01:45
    When we think that we are reasoning to an ethical conclusion, the evidence shows that
  • 00:01:49
    we typically are simply rationalizing a decision already made by the emotional parts of our brain.
  • 00:01:57
    Our brains' intuitive system often gets it right, but not universally.
  • 00:02:02
    So, we should never ignore our gut feelings when they tell us
  • 00:02:05
    that we are about to do something wrong.
  • 00:02:08
    But, our intuition does not always choose the ethical path.
  • 00:02:12
    An important reason that the intuitive/emotional part of our brain errs is the self-serving bias,
  • 00:02:18
    which often leads us to unconsciously make choices that seem unjustifiable
  • 00:02:23
    to objective third party observers.
  • 00:02:27
    As a simple example, a U.S. News & World Report survey asked some people: "If someone sues you
  • 00:02:34
    and you win the case, should they pay your legal expenses?"
  • 00:02:39
    Eighty-five percent of the respondents thought this would be fair.
  • 00:02:43
    The magazine asked others: "If you sue someone and lose the case, should you pay their costs?"
  • 00:02:51
    Now, only 44% of respondents agreed, illustrating how our sense of fairness is easily influenced
  • 00:02:58
    by self-interest.
  • 00:03:00
    [James] Probably every day there is a moment when you think like,
  • 00:03:04
    "Should I do this, should I not? It's gonna be easier for me to do it, but
  • 00:03:09
    it doesn't mean that it's gonna be the right thing to do.
  • 00:03:12
    Sometimes I'm really tired of grading, for example.
  • 00:03:16
    Well, my job is part of me doing a PhD and doing a PhD is my first priority so I have
  • 00:03:24
    to take care of my PhD instead of my teaching and I think that's part of rationalizing.
  • 00:03:31
    If we are not careful, we will not even notice how the self-serving bias influences our ethical decisions.
  • 00:03:38
    Authors Bronson and Merryman report that "if you're a Red Sox fan, watching a Sox game,
  • 00:03:43
    you're using a different region of the brain to judge if a runner is safe than you would
  • 00:03:48
    if you were watching a game between two teams you didn't care about."
  • 00:03:52
    So, how can we combat the self-serving bias?
  • 00:03:56
    There is some experimental evidence that if we know about the self-serving bias, we can
  • 00:04:00
    arm ourselves against it and minimize its effects.
  • 00:04:03
    [Claire] I worked in India for 2 and a half years and I worked very closely with private
  • 00:04:09
    enterprises but also with state and local governments.
  • 00:04:14
    As some people may be aware, there's a culture of bribery in India that's quite prevalent.
  • 00:04:19
    That was a very difficult situation for me to be in because I could see the end benefit
  • 00:04:26
    of the program but I knew in order get there I would have to do something that I felt was
  • 00:04:30
    unethical, which was pay a bribe.
  • 00:04:32
    I did find myself rationalizing it at first, like is it really that big of a deal?
  • 00:04:36
    I mean, I was working through that whole ethical and moral decision making process where you're
  • 00:04:40
    sort of fighting between your self-interest and your gut.
  • 00:04:44
    Ultimately, you know, I, again I relied on that gut instinct that I spoke about earlier
  • 00:04:49
    and I didn't pay the bribe.
  • 00:04:54
    We must focus not just on being objective, but on doing what it takes to ensure that
  • 00:04:58
    others see us as objective.
  • 00:05:01
    We will naturally judge our own decisions with a sympathetic eye, but we know that others
  • 00:05:05
    will not necessarily do so.
  • 00:05:08
    So if we do what it takes to cause objective third parties to trust our judgments, we should
  • 00:05:14
    go a long way toward overcoming the impact of the self-serving bias.
  • 00:05:20
    At the end of the day when I would step back from my work, I didn't want to participate
  • 00:05:23
    in a system that I didn't believe in and I felt like justifying the outcomes could
  • 00:05:27
    be a very slippery slope.
  • 00:05:30
    We should also pay especially close attention to our profession's code of conduct and our
  • 00:05:34
    employer's code of ethics, because such standards are normally aimed primarily at minimizing
  • 00:05:39
    conflicts of interest and their unconscious impact on our decision making.
  • 00:05:44
    The self-serving bias is far from the only psychological or organizational factor that
  • 00:05:49
    can cause us to make the wrong ethical choice, but it's certainly a big one!
  • 00:05:56
    I think if you surround yourself with good people who, you know, they have good values
  • 00:06:02
    and you know, you're able to kinda reveal your vulnerability, like I struggle with ethical
  • 00:06:05
    decisions because they're not always straightforward, they're not clean-cut.
  • 00:06:10
    Yes, we are gonna try... always try to do the best for ourselves
  • 00:06:15
    before we do it for the rest.
  • 00:06:18
    And when you, like, accept that, you start knowing, like, you start understanding that
  • 00:06:26
    there is a process of rationalizing.
  • 00:06:28
    [Howard] When your gut instinct is different from your head, from what your brain is telling you...
  • 00:06:33
    it's not a good feeling.
  • 00:06:35
    The best feeling is something that you know is right in your head and that you feel is
  • 00:06:39
    right and you make a decision and you go forward with that.
Tags
  • prise de décision morale
  • biais de complaisance
  • éthique
  • rationnalisation
  • objectivité
  • code de conduite
  • influences psychologiques
  • dilemmes éthiques