Psychology Of Fraud: Why Good People Do Bad ThingsCHANA JOFFE-WALT and ALIX SPIEGEL | May 1, 2012 | npr
"This very basic question — what causes unethical behavior? — has been getting a fair amount of attention from researchers recently, particularly those interested in how our brains process information when we make decisions.
"And what these researchers have concluded is that most of us are capable of behaving in profoundly unethical ways. And not only are we capable of it — without realizing it, we do it all the time.
"'If you're thinking about a business decision, you are significantly more likely to lie than if you were thinking from an ethical frame,' Tenbrunsel says.
"According to Tenbrunsel, the business frame cognitively activates one set of goals — to be competent, to be successful; the ethics frame triggers other goals. And once you're in, say, a business frame, you become really focused on meeting those goals, and other goals can completely fade from view.
"We like to help each other, especially people we identify with. And when we are helping people, we really don't see what we are doing as unethical."
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