סמינר בהתנהגות ארגונית

Norms shape our judgment and choice. In this talk, I will review two independent findings pertaining to the relationship between norms, ethical judgments and decisions about harming and saving others. 

The role of (in)action norms while driving regular and autonomous vehicles (With Simone Moran and Clil Uliel)

The technology for self-driving cars is here and soon self-driving cars will replace regular cars reducing casualties and improving our lives. Still, not all accidents will be avoided and situations of unavoidable harm will still exist. Here we suggest that in a case of unavoidable harm a driver in a self-driving car who swerves the car in order to obtain the more utilitarian outcome will be judged more favorably than a driver in a regular car obtaining the same outcome. The reason is that we have different (in)action norms. We expect the driver in the regular car to act and choose the utilitarian outcome but we do not expect the driver in the self-driving car to override the car’s default. This difference in expectation leads in turn to a more favorable judgment of the latter.

Winning a competition predicts dishonest behavior (with Ilana Ritov)

Competition is prevalent. People often resort to unethical means to win (e.g., the recent Volkswagen scandal). Not surprisingly, competition is central to the study of economics, psychology, sociology, political science, and more. Although we know much about contestants’ behavior before and during competitions, we know little about contestants’ behavior after the competition has ended. Connecting post competition behaviors with preceding competition experience, we find that after a competition is over winners behave more dishonestly than losers in an unrelated subsequent task. Furthermore, the subsequent unethical behavior effect seems to depend on winning, rather than on mere success. Providing insight into the issue is important in gaining understanding of how unethical behavior may cascade from exposure to competitive settings.