Unit: Psychological Obstacles to Acting Ethically
Most undergraduate students want to be morally good people, and most ethics instructors want to help them be morally good people. Part of accomplishing this task is teaching students how to engage in moral reasoning and examine difficult moral questions, which is what most ethics courses emphasize. Yet no matter how familiar one is with controversial moral issues or the complexities of contemporary ethical theorizing, this knowledge alone is not enough to overcome the myriad of psychological tendencies that can cause people to act unethically even when these people have good intentions. This unit reviews those psychological tendencies, highlights how they pose challenges to behaving ethically, and considers the ways that they can be overcome.