The Motivation To Be Ethical

Classical economists assume that practically all human behavior, including altruism, is motivated solely by self-interest—that humans are purely rational economic actors who make choices solely on the basis of cold cost-benefit analyses. But a new group of economists who call themselves behavioral economists have found that people are not only less rational than classical economists assumed, but more moral. Much evidence suggests that people act for altruistic or moral purposes that seemingly have little to do with cost-benefit analyses.24 For example, people will mail back lost wallets to strangers, cash and all; help strangers in distress; and donate blood marrow for strangers or a kidney to a family member. Also, the large majority of people will refrain from stealing even if it’s easy to do so.

In his book The Moral Dimension, Amitai Etzioni25 cited many more examples and research evidence to document his claim that human action has two distinct sources: the pursuit of self-interest and moral commitments. Accordingly, most human decisions are based on ethical and emotional considerations as well as rational economic self-interest. People are motivated by both economic and moral concerns.

In a typical behavioral economics experiment called ‘‘the ultimatum game,’’ subject A in the experiment receives 10 one-dollar bills and can give subject B any number of them. Subject B can choose to accept or reject A’s offer. If B accepts, they each get what was offered. If B rejects the offer, each gets nothing. From a pure economics perspective, A would do best offering B one dollar and keeping the rest. B should accept that offer because, in economic terms, getting one dollar is better than nothing. But most A subjects offer B close to half the total, an average of about four dollars. B subjects who are offered one or two dollars generally reject the offer. Economists can’t explain this result based upon rational self-interest. People’s sense of fairness seems to be driving both subjects’ behavior. Interestingly, when people play the game with a machine, they are more likely to play as classical economics would predict because they don’t expect a machine to be ‘‘fair.’’ Autistic A players (whose autism means that they don’t take others’ feelings into account) also play as the theory would predict. So most people expect fair play in their interactions with other human beings, and they will even forgo economic benefits in order to maintain a fair system.

Neuroscience is also beginning to substantiate the moral sense that develops in humans. New imaging technologies have allowed scientists to locate a unique type of neuron in the brain—spindle cells—that light up when people perceive unfairness or deception. Only humans and African apes have these cells. But an adult human has over 82,000 of them, whereas a gorilla has around 16,000 (perhaps explaining why a gorilla might save a human child). A chimp has less than 2,000. In humans, these cells appear at around 4 months of age and gradually increase with moral development.

In 2003, neuroscientists looked inside the brains of people playing the ultimatum game using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans. They found that unfair offers were associated with heightened activity in parts of the brain associated with strong negative emotions as well as in other parts of the brain associated with long-term planning. Those who rejected the unfair offers had more activity in the emotional part of the brain, which is the part that usually wins out.

Beyond being hardwired for fairness and altruism, employees are also concerned about their personal reputations. In today’s work environment, success depends on an individual’s ability to work effectively with others. Trust greases the wheels of working relationships with peers across departments and on project teams. We disagree with the old adage that ‘‘nice guys (or gals) finish last.’’ If it looks like bad guys (or gals) come out ahead, this is generally a short-run result. A reputation for being difficult to work with, dishonest, or mean often catches up with you as coworkers withhold important information and promotions go to others. Given the importance of relationships to effectiveness in business today, your reputation for integrity is an essential ingredient for success and personal satisfaction. This is even truer in an age of social networking that can send news of bad behavior to a broad audience in seconds.