Mendoza School of Business

Blind Spots: We’re Not as Ethical as We Think

Published: April 20, 2011 / Author: Sean Silverthorne



Think back to recent events when people making unethical decisions grabbed the headlines. How did auditors approve the books of Enron and Lehman Brothers? How did feeder funds sell Bernard Madoff’s invesments? We would never act as they did, we think. We operate under a higher standard.

But the fact is that while we like to think of ourselves as fair, moral, and lawful, recent science shows us that we are quite capable of committing unethical acts, or approving of the dishonest acts of others, even as we believe we are doing the right thing.

Recognizing why we do this and how we can get out of the trap is the subject of the new book, Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What’s Right and What to Do about It, by Max H. Bazerman, a professor at Harvard Business School, and Ann E. Tenbrunsel, a professor of business ethics at the University of Notre Dame.

To read the entire article visit: Blind Spots: We’re Not as Ethical as We Think

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Topics: Mendoza