Abstract
Ethics Position Theory (EPT) (Forsyth, 1980) states that people have relatively stable implicit moral philosophies in terms of degree for idealism and relativism. The present study hypothesizes that the complexity of a situation might lead to shift in their ethical ideologies. The level of complexity any situation poses is assessed based on centrality approach, i.e. stakeholder centrality (self/other) and situational centrality (rational/emotional). The extent of shift in various ethical positions has been examined in detail in the present study and is individually assessed for all four ethical position dimensions i.e. absolutists, exceptionists, situationists and subjectivists. The 2X2 between groups experiment is designed which traces the shifting patterns of 224 professionals with a mean age of 24.4 years. The results show mobility and retention of ethical moral personalities and states that individuals tend to anchor high idealism in rational situations when it directly impacts their selves. However when situation impacts others, there is more reliance on relativism. The study also states that when emotions are involved in situations, people tend to anchor more towards high relativism.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Allgaier, L., & Stone, E. R. (2002). The influence of cultural values on decision making for others versus for oneself, in poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, Kansas City, MO.
Antes, A. L., Brown, R. P., Murphy, S. T., Waples, E. P., Mumford, M. D., Connelly, S., & Devenport, L. D. (2007). Personality and ethical decision-making in research: The role of perceptions of self and others. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 2, 15–34.
Arsenio, W. F., & Lemerise, E. A. (2004). Aggression and moral development: Integrating social information processing and moral domain models. Child Development, 75, 987–1002.
Baehr, M. E., Jones, J. W., & Nerad, A. J. (1993). Psychological correlates of business ethics orientation in executives. Journal of Business and Psychology, 7, 291–308.
Banerjee, D., Cronan, T. P., & Jones, T. W. (1998). Modeling IT ethics: A study in situational ethics. MIS Quarterly, 22, 31–60.
Bazerman, M. H., & Moore, D. A. (2008). Judgment in managerial decision making. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc..
Beisswanger, A. H., Stone, E. R., Hupp, J. M., & Allgaier, L. (2003). Risk taking in relationships: Differences in deciding for oneself versus for a friend. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 25, 121–135.
Bell, M. (1998). The journalism of attachment in M. Kieran (ed.) in media ethics. London: Routledge.
Bland, A. R., Schei, T., Roiser, J. P., Mehta, M. A., Zahn, R., Seara-Cardoso, A., & Elliott, R. (2020). Agency and intentionality-dependent experiences of moral emotions. Personality and Individual Differences, 164, 110–125.
Burgoon, J. K. (1991). Relational message interpretations of touch, conversational distance, and posture. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 15, 233–259.
Cole, D., Sirgy, M. J., & Bird, M. M. (2000). How do managers make teleological evaluations in ethical dilemmas? Testing part of and extending the hunt-Vitell model. Journal of Business Ethics, 26, 259–269.
Collier-Spruel, L., Hawkins, A., Jayawickreme, E., Fleeson, W., & Furr, R. M. (2019). Relativism or tolerance? Defining, assessing, connecting, and distinguishing two moral personality features with prominent roles in modern societies. Journal of Personality, 87, 1170–1188.
Davis, M. A., Andersen, M. G., & Curtis, M. B. (2001). Measuring ethical ideology in business ethics: A critical analysis of the ethics position questionnaire. Journal of Business Ethics, 32, 35–53.
Dean Jr., J. W., & Sharfman, M. P. (1993). Procedural rationality in the strategic decision-making process. Journal of Management Studies, 30, 587–610.
DeConinck, J. B., & Good, D. J. (1989). Perceptual differences of sales practitioners and students concerning ethical behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 8, 667–676.
Ekici, H., Yücel, E., & Cesur, S. (2021). Deciding between moral priorities and COVID-19 avoiding behaviors: A moral foundations vignette study. Current Psychology, 1–17.
Etzioni, A. (1988). Normative-affective factors: Toward a new decision-making model. Journal of Economic Psychology, 9, 125–150.
Fernandez-Dols, J. M., Wallbott, H., & Sanchez, F. (1991). Emotion category accessibility and the decoding of emotion from facial expression and context. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 15, 107–123.
Ferrell, O., & Gresham, L. (1985). A contingency framework for understanding ethical decision-making in marketing. Journal of Marketing, 3, 87–96.
Festinger, L. (1962). A theory of cognitive dissonance (Vol. 2). Stanford university press.
Forsyth, D. R. (1980). A taxonomy of ethical ideologies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 175–184.
Forsyth, D. R. (1992). Judging the morality of business practices: The influence of personal moral philosophies. Journal of Business Ethics, 11, 461–470.
Forsyth, D. R. (1993). Honorable intentions versus praiseworthy accomplishments: The impact of motives and outcomes on the moral self. Current Psychology, 12(4), 296–311.
Forsyth, D. R., O’boyle, E. H., & McDaniel, M. A. (2008). East meets west: A metaanalytic investigation of cultural variations in idealism and relativism. Journal of Business Ethics, 83(4), 813–833.
Gaudine, A., & Thorne, L. (2001). Emotion and ethical decision-making in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 31, 175–187.
George, D., & Mallery, P. (2003). SPSS for windows step by step: A simple guide and reference. 11.0 update (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Gibbard, A. (1990). Norms, discussion, and ritual: Evolutionary puzzles. Ethics, 100, 787–802.
Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice. Boston: Harvard University Press.
Gino, F., Schweitzer, M. E., Mead, N. L., & Ariely, D. (2011). Unable to resist temptation: How self-control depletion promotes unethical behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 115, 191–203.
Grieve, R., & Mahar, D. (2010). The emotional manipulation–psychopathy nexus: Relationships with emotional intelligence, alexithymia and ethical position. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 945–950.
Haidt, J. (2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108, 814–834.
Haidt, J. (2002). Dialogue between my head and my heart: Affective influences on moral judgment. Psychological Inquiry, 13, 54–56.
Haidt, J. (2007). The new synthesis in moral psychology. Science, 316, 998–1002.
Hartshorne, H., & May, M. A. (1928). Studies in deceit. New York: Macmillan.
Hoffman, K. B., Cole, D. A., Martin, J. M., Tram, J., & Seroczynski, A. D. (2000). Are the discrepancies between self-and others' appraisals of competence predictive or reflective of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents: A longitudinal study, part II. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 651–662.
Keeney, R. L., & Raiffa, H. (1976). Decision analysis with multiple conflicting objectives. New York: Wiley and Sons.
Kohlberg, L. (1968). Early education: A cognitive-developmental view. Child Development, 39, 1013–1062.
Kray, L. J. (2000). Contingent weighting in self-other decision making. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 83, 82–106.
Kray, L., & Gonzalez, R. (1999). Differential weighting in choice versus advice: I’ll do this, you do that. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 12, 207–218.
Liu, Y., Polman, E., Liu, Y., & Jiao, J. (2018). Choosing for others and its relation to information search. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 147, 65–75.
Liu, Q., Zhang, X., Huang, S., Zhang, L., & Zhao, Y. (2020). Exploring consumers’ buying behavior in a large online promotion activity: The role of psychological distance and involvement. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 15, 66–80.
Maglio, S. J. (2020). Psychological distance in consumer psychology: Consequences and antecedents. Consumer Psychology Review, 3, 108–125.
Mathes, E. W. (2019). An evolutionary perspective on Kohlberg’s theory of moral development. Current Psychology, 1–14.
Miner, M., & Petocz, A. (2003). Moral theory in ethical decision making: Problems, clarifications and recommendations from a psychological perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 42, 11–25.
Moore, C., Detert, J. R., Klebe Treviño, L., Baker, V. L., & Mayer, D. M. (2012). Why employees do bad things: Moral disengagement and unethical organizational behavior. Personnel Psychology, 65, 1–48.
Myyry, L. (2003). Components of morality: A professional ethics perspective on moral motivation, moral sensitivity, moral reasoning, and related constructs among university students. Helsinki, Finland: Helsinki University Press.
Naseer, S., Bouckenooghe, D., Syed, F., Khan, A. K., & Qazi, S. (2020). The malevolent side of organizational identification: Unraveling the impact of psychological entitlement and manipulative personality on unethical work behaviors. Journal of Business and Psychology, 35(3), 333–346.
Piaget, J. (1965). The stages of the intellectual development of the child. Educational psychology in context: Readings for future teachers, 68, 98–106.
Pierce, C. A., & Aguinis, H. (1997). Bridging the gap between romantic relationships and sexual harassment in organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 18, 197–200.
Polman, E. (2012a). Effects of self–other decision making on regulatory focus and choice overload. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(5), 980–993.
Polman, E. (2012b). Self–other decision making and loss aversion. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 119(2), 141–150.
Polman, E., & Wu, K. (2020). Decision making for others involving risk: A review and meta-analysis. Journal of Economic Psychology, 77, 102184.
Radkiewicz, P. (2020). Social and competitive threat as situational factors moderating relationships between moral judgments and different components of authoritarian ideology. Current Psychology, 1–13.
Rawls, J. (1971). A theory of justice. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
Robertson, C. J., Crittenden, W. F., Brady, M. K., & Hoffman, J. J. (2002). Situational ethics across borders: A multicultural examination. Journal of Business Ethics, 38, 327–338.
Robertson, D. C., & Ross, W. T. (1995). Decision-making processes on ethical issues: The impact of a social contract perspective. Business Ethics Quarterly, 5, 213–240.
Simon, H. A. (1978). Rationality as process and as product of thought. The American Economic Review, 68, 1–16.
Skoe, E. E., Eisenberg, N., & Cumberland, A. (2002). The role of reported emotion in real-life and hypothetical moral dilemmas. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 962–973.
Small, C., & Lew, C. (2019). Mindfulness, Moral Reasoning and Responsibility: Towards Virtue in Ethical Decision-Making. Journal of Business Ethics, 1–15.
Solomon, R. C. (1993). The philosophy of emotions. In M. Lewis & J. Haviland (Eds.), Handbook of emotions. New York: Guilford Press.
Streeck, W. (1993). Training and the new industrial relations. Economic restructuring and emerging patterns of industrial relations. Kalamazoo, MI: WP Upjohn Institute.
Suedfeld, P., Bluck, S., & Ballard, E. J. (1994). The effects of emotional involvement and psychological distance on integrative complexity. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 24, 443–452.
Trevino, L. (1986). Ethical decision-making in organizations: A person-situation interactionist model. Academy of Management Review, 11, 601–617.
Tribe, L. H. (1973). Technology assessment and the fourth discontinuity: The limits of instrumental rationality. Southern California Law Review, 46, 617–660.
Turiel, E. (1983). The development of social knowledge: Morality and convention. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Tversky, A., Sattath, S., & Slovic, P. (1988). Contingent weighting in judgment and choice. Psychological Review, 95(371), 384.
Van Boven, L., & Caruso, E. M. (2015). The tripartite foundations of temporal psychological distance: Metaphors, ecology, and teleology. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9, 593–605.
Wray, L. D., & Stone, E. R. (2005). The role of self-esteem and anxiety in decision making for self versus others in relationships. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 18, 125–144.
Wark, G. R., & Krebs, D. L. (2000). The construction of moral dilemmas in everyday life. Journal of Moral Education, 29, 5–21.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Ethics Approval
The present research study has approval from the ethics board of Indian Council of Social Science Research as funding agency.
Consent to Participate
The present study has informed consent from the participants before conducting the study.
Consent for Publication
The present research study has consent for publication from the funding agency
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
*The present research work has been funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR)
Appendix 1
Appendix 1
Coding
The coding of the dummies as explained below. The ethical positions were assigned the following codes for both pre test and post test:
Ethical Position | Code |
|---|---|
Absolutist | 1 |
Exceptionist Subjectivist | 2 3 |
Situationist | 4 |
Dummy1 is obtained by adding the codes of pre-test and post-test. Dummy2 is obtained by subtracting the code of post test from code of pre test. Final shift is obtained by multiplying Dummy1 and Dummy2, thereby assigning a unique code for each shift.
Pre test | Post test | Dummy1 (Pre test + post test) | Dummy2 (Pre test - post test) | Final-Shift (Dummy1*Dummy2) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
1 | 2 | 3 | −1 | −3 |
1 | 3 | 4 | −2 | −8 |
1 | 4 | 5 | −3 | −15 |
2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
2 | 3 | 5 | −1 | −5 |
2 | 4 | 6 | −2 | −12 |
3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 8 |
3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 5 |
3 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
3 | 4 | 7 | −1 | −7 |
4 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 15 |
4 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 12 |
4 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 7 |
4 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
The significance of the codes of final-shift is as follows:
UNIQUE CODE | Pre Ethical Position | Post Ethical Position |
|---|---|---|
0 | No shift | |
−3 | Absolutist | Exceptionist |
−8 | Absolutist | Subjectivist |
−15 | Absolutist | Situationist |
3 | Exceptionist | Absolutist |
−5 | Exceptionist | Subjectivist |
−12 | Exceptionist | Situationist |
8 | Subjectivist | Absolutist |
5 | Subjectivist | Exceptionist |
−7 | Subjectivist | Situationist |
15 | Situationist | Absolutist |
12 | Situationist | Exceptionist |
7 | Situationist | Subjectivist |
Calculating Forward Tracing and Backward Tracing.
Forward tracing of categories (Where do you go?)
Forward tracing was done by assessing the dispersion of a specific category from their pre ethical positions to the various categories post ethical positions. For example: In pre ethical position, there were originally 17 Absolutists (refer to rational X self condition). Post simulation, out of 17, 2 retained their position and the rest of 15 dispersed to the other three ethical position categories.
Backward tracing of categories (Where do you come from?)
Post simulation in each condition, the frequency of people taking different ethical positions was assessed. For these ethical positions, the results were extrapolated to obtain their original pre-ethical positions prior to simulation. This is referred to as the backward tracing. For example: In (refer to rational X self condition) the frequency of Absolutist (post simulation) is 6, out of which only 2 belonged to absolutist as a pre-ethical position and 4 were pre-Exceptionists.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mukherjee, T., Padhi, A.K. Investigating stability in ethical ideologies as moral personalities: understanding ethical shifts through centrality approach. Curr Psychol 42, 9155–9169 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02153-0
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02153-0