Ethical Fading: The Role of Self-Deception in Unethical Behavior

By Ann E. Tenbrunsel, D. Messick. 2004

724 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Information Systems and Management, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7bb3e6cc323dd467cf2a098f89d1afc30f0a6efc

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cognitive Neuroscience

In Information Systems and Management

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

Ethically adrift: How others pull our moral compass from true North, and how we can fix it (2013, background): “When social processes facilitate us to neglect the consequences of our actions, the “moral colors [of those actions]…fade into bleached hues that are void of moral implications,” (Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004, p. 224).”
Moral Disengagement in Processes of Organizational Corruption (2008, background): “Recently, researchers have begun to think about the ways in which our cognitive biases make us boundedly ethical as well as boundedly rational (Chugh et al., 2005; Murnighan et al., 2001; Tenbrunsel and Messick, 2004).”
Rationalization, Overcompensation and the Escalation of Corruption in Organizations (2009, background): “…or hypocrite, the notion of rationalization is very useful for illustrating the banality of corruption – often it is ordinary and ostensibly honest and lawabiding citizens that engage in terrific acts of unlawfulness (Audi, 1988; Tenbrunsel and Messick, 2004; Zyglidopoulos and Fleming, 2008).”
The Ethical Mirage: A Temporal Explanation as to Why We Are Not as Ethical as We Think We Are (2010, methodology): “Language euphemisms, or the linguistic disguises that we use to cover up the unethical aspects of an action, are one example (Bandura, 1999; Bok, 1989; Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004).”
Deciding what's right: The role of external sanctions and embarrassment in shaping moral judgments in the workplace (2008, background): “…twisted, and perverted reality until, in their minds, what is wrong becomes what is right (e.g., Bandura, 1999; Bandura, Barbarabaelli, Caprara & Pastorelli, 1996; Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004)—that is, they maneuver their beliefs until violations of moral rules no longer appear to be such.”
Who's with Me? False Consensus, Brokerage, and Ethical Decision Making in Organizations (2010, background): “Theoretical Implications Research on ethical decision making in organizations has become increasingly focused on the psychological drivers of ethical judgment (Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004).”
Exploring the Impact of Job Insecurity on Employees’ Unethical Behavior (2016, background): “A stream of literature has identifi ed factors that infl uence an individual’s decision to engage in unethical behavior (Caruso & Gino, 2011 ; Chugh et al., 2005 ; Gino et al., 2011 ; KishGephart et al., 2010 ; Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004 ; Treviño & Youngblood, 1990 ).”
Antecedents and consequences of chronic impulsive buying: Can impulsive buying be understood as dysfunctional self‐regulation? (2018, background): “As Tenbrunsel and Messick (2004) note, the language and decision-frames which academics construct through research, and teach in courses, can contribute to this process of ethical fading in its use of language and frames that de-emphasize the human cost of business”
Moral disengagement in ethical decision making: a study of antecedents and outcomes. (2008, background): “Similarly, Tenbrunsel and Messick (2004) identified euphemistic language as a key self-deceptive tactic that allows individuals to behave unethically in organizations.”
When Employees Do Bad Things for Good Reasons: Examining Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviors (2011, background): “By removing or lessening the ethical implications of the actor's conduct, neutralization allows " individuals to behave incomprehensibly and, at the same time, not realize that they are doing so " (Tenbrunsel and Messick 2004, p. 224).”
Breaking rules for the right reasons? An investigation of pro-social rule breaking (2012, methodology): “Further, lower-level employees may lack the accumulated idiosyncrasy credits to deviate from rules and remain liked, trusted, and accepted in their workgroups (Stone & Cooper, 2009).”
Unethical use of wildlife in tourism: what's the problem, who is responsible, and what can be done? (2017, background): “…trade-off between self-interest and moral principles, and by avoiding or disguising the moral implications of a decision (a process termed “ethical fading”), individuals can behave in a self-interested manner and still hold the conviction that they are ethical persons (Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004).”
Understanding ordinary unethical behavior: why people who value morality act immorally (2015, neutral): “But, the assumption that people are making explicit tradeoffs between behaving ethically and behaving in their selfinterest is not always supported, even when unethical behavior clearly has occurred [30].”
Dishonest Deed, Clear Conscience: When Cheating Leads to Moral Disengagement and Motivated Forgetting (2011, background): “Scholars have argued that the best explanations for unethical decision making may reside in underlying psychological processes (Messick & Bazerman, 1996; Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004).”