Bounded ethicality: the perils of loss framing.
Ethical decision making is vulnerable to the forces of automaticity. People behave differently in the face of a potential loss versus a potential gain, even when the two situations are transparently identical. Across three experiments, decision makers engaged in more unethical behavior if a decision was presented in a loss frame than if the decision was presented in a gain frame. In Experiment 1, participants in the loss-frame condition were more likely to favor gathering "insider information" than were participants in the gain-frame condition. In Experiment 2, negotiators in the loss-frame condition lied more than negotiators in the gain-frame condition. In Experiment 3, the tendency to be less ethical in the loss-frame condition occurred under time pressure and was eliminated through the removal of time pressure.
Kern
Mary C
MC
Department of Management, Box B9-240, Baruch College, New York, NY 10010, USA. mary.kern@baruch.cuny.edu
Chugh
Dolly
D
D001332:Automatism; D003657:Decision Making; D004989:Ethics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior; D013997:Time Factors