Does moral commitment predict resistance to corruption? experimental evidence from a bribery game

Corruption is ubiquitous in practice and has severe negative consequences for organizations and societies at large. Drawing on a laboratory experiment, we propose that individuals high in moral commitment are less likely to engage in corrupt behaviors and prefer foregoing financial benefits. Specifically, we posit that individuals refrain from corruption (i) the more they endorse integrity (incorruptibility) as a protected value and (ii) the higher their level of Honesty-Humility. The results of a two-step experiment largely support our expectations: people who treat compromises to integrity as unacceptable were less willing to accept bribes, and Honesty-Humility decreased bribe-giving. The findings are robust to demographic variables (e.g., age, gender, cultural background) and additional personal characteristics (e.g., risk tolerance, dispositional greed) and have important implications for ongoing theory-building efforts and business practice.

On Being a Fan and on Fanhood and Its Implications for Defeating the Moral Sceptic

I employ the notion of fanhood to object to David Gauthier's Dependency Thesis, according to which, if a disposition is rationally required to adopt, so too are the acts expressing it. I first establish that fanhood is a commitment relevantly similar to a moral commitment. I then argue that, because genuine fanhood characteristically issues in inherently irrational behaviours in the form of ‘luck charms,’ or, superstitious practices fans believe will help their team win, it poses a decisive objection to the Dependency Thesis, thereby eliminating a promising attempt to defeat the moral sceptic.

Global impact of vaccine nationalism during COVID-19 pandemic

Vaccines are the best chance to control the pandemic—unless leaders succumb to vaccine nationalism. Vaccine nationalism is a frequent recurrence, especially during a brand-new market distribution. The development of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in such a short space of time is a testament to modern scientific abilities. It will also test the world's political will and moral commitment to end this pandemic. As desperate as the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine nationalism is already setting a foundation for itself and is considered socially and economically counterproductive. Vaccine equity is not just a theoretical slogan, and it protects people worldwide from new vaccine-resistant variants. Understanding and anticipating the consequences is vital, and creating a global solution approach to avoid them. This article evaluates the common issues previously faced and the plausible ones during this pandemic. A few recommendations are made to warn and accentuate the reality of this dire matter.

Kantian Autonomy and Contemporary Ideas of Autonomy

Kant argued that autonomy of the will is a necessary presupposition of all morality. His idea of autonomy is abstract, foundational, normative, and a key to his defense of the rationality of moral commitment. In contemporary ethics philosophers often appeal to autonomy, more specifically, as a moral right to make one’s own decisions or as a psychological ideal of independence and rational self-control. Kantian and contemporary ideas of autonomy are not the same, but how are they related? Arguably, Kantian autonomy, when applied realistically to common human circumstances, tends to not only support but also limit the particular claims made in the name of autonomy. Kantian autonomy is a crucial part of the moral point of view from which specific principles can be assessed, not an ideal of living independently of others. Derivative principles must take into account ways in which various physical and social conditions inhibit the capacity for self-determination.

Intentions vs. efficiency in policy evaluations

By consequentialist standards, the only thing that should matter is how successful policies are at reaching their objective, relative to their cost. Yet, across 5 online studies (N = 1515), we found that French participants regarded a policy driven by an altruistic intention but that turned out to reach its objective very poorly at a huge cost, as being more commendable than (Experiment 1-4), and as deserving equal support as (Experiment 5), a policy motivated by selfishness but that dramatically helped the issue while saving lots of money. This preference was observed whether the decision was made by a CEO or minister, and across four issues. Independent manipulation of intent and efficiency (Experiment 5) suggested that folk judgments of policies are characterized both by low sensitivity to huge differences in efficiency expressed in numerical format, and high sensitivity to actors’ intentions. Participants’ moral commitment to the issue predicted greater support for any policy that somehow contributed to help the issue, whatever its level of efficiency and the intention driving it (Experiment 5), suggesting that moralization makes people more deontological in their judgments.

Do Good Citizens Need Good Laws? Economics and the Expressive Function

We explore how adding prosocial preferences to the canonical precaution model of accidents changes either the efficient damages rule or the harm from accidents. For a utilitarian lawmaker, making the potential injurer sympathetic to the victim of harm has no effect on either outcome. On the other hand, making injurers averse to harming others reduces the harm from accidents but has no effect on efficient damages. For an atomistic lawmaker — one who excludes prosocial preferences from social welfare — cultivating a taste for either harm aversion or perfect sympathy can reduce efficient damages, though neither has any effect on the amount of harm from accidents. On the other hand, causing people to act as if they are averse to harm creation, such as out of habit or moral obligation, reduces both the efficient amount of damages and total harm. In general, encouraging either a distaste for, or moral commitment against, harm creation is useful while inculcating sympathy for victims of harm is not.

The Challenge of Educating Purposeful Teachers in Finland

This article discusses the challenges of educating teachers in Finland. As a goal in teacher education for the 21st century we propose the purposeful teacher, referring to a teacher who has a long-term moral commitment to serve students, the school community and society. Our data collected from student (N = 912) and practising (N = 77) teachers yielded information on the purposes they identified as important in their lives. The survey included quantitative instruments and open- ended questions. The teachers identified happiness, relationships, work and self-actualisation as the most important contents of their aspirations. All the content categories could be understood as potential purposes in that the benefit extended beyond the teachers themselves. However, almost half of the student teachers (46%) and over half of teachers (55%) revealed only self-orientation. Less than half of them (43%, 36%, respectively) showed a beyond-the-self orientation, which is indicative of a purposeful teacher. Among the practising teachers, teaching appeared to be mainly a mediating factor in realising their purposes or aspirations. These results have implications related to contemporary teacher education in Finland. Both pre- and in-service teachers need to know about purposeful teaching in order to find meaning in their work.

Can Animism Save the World? Reflections on Personhood and Complexity in the Ecological Crisis

The term “animism” is at once a fantasy internal to modernity and a semiotic conduit enabling a serious inquiry into non-modern phenomena that radically call into question the modern distinction of nature and culture. Therefore, I suggest that the labelling of people, practices or ideas as “animist” is a strategic one. I also raise the question if animism can help to solve the modern ecological crisis that allegedly stems from the nature-culture divide. In particular, animism makes it possible to recognize personhood in non-humans, thus creating moral relationships with the non-human world. A number of scholars and activists identify animism as respect for all living beings and as intimate relationships with nature and its spirits. However, this argument still presupposes the fixity of the ontological status of beings as alive or persons. A different view of animism highlights concepts of fluid and unstable persons that emerge from ongoing communicative processes. I argue that the kind of attentiveness that drives fluid personhood may be supportive of a politics of life that sees relationships with non-humans in terms of moral commitment.