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The Capacity for Ethical Decisions: The Relationship Between Working Memory and Ethical Decision Making

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Abstract

Although various models of ethical decision making (EDM) have implicitly called upon constructs governed by working memory capacity (WMC), a study examining this relationship specifically has not been conducted. Using a sense making framework of EDM, we examined the relationship between WMC and various sensemaking processes contributing to EDM. Participants completed an online assessment comprised of a demographic survey, intelligence test, various EDM measures, and the Automated Operation Span task to determine WMC. Results indicated that WMC accounted for unique variance above and beyond ethics education, exposure to ethical issues, and intelligence in several sensemaking processes. Additionally, a marginally significant effect of WMC was also found with reference to EDM. Individual differences in WMC appear likely to play an important role in the ethical decision-making process, and future researchers may wish to consider their potential influences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma, 455 W. Lindsey St., Dale Hall Tower, Room 705, Norman, OK, 73019, USA

    April Martin, Zhanna Bagdasarov & Shane Connelly

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  1. April Martin
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  2. Zhanna Bagdasarov
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Correspondence to April Martin.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Demographic Survey

Appendix 2: Friendswood City Council

You are an expert building contractor. You have a master’s degree in civil engineering, and after 20 years of working as a licensed contractor, you decided to retire. You and your spouse live in Friendswood, a small community in which you are very active. You often volunteer your services and expertise to local organizations that need your help. For instance, when city structures are being built, you often volunteer your expertise as a contractor free of charge, so that the city can save money. Whenever such opportunities arise, you are pleased to help because no one will place restrictions on you or your “vision”. Most of the time, you enjoy full autonomy to proceed with the projects as you see fit.

You are on the board of the Friendswood city council. There are twelve people that make up the council, including you. Members of the city council are elected by the residents of the city. You feel like the city council elections have become somewhat of a popularity contest, and it seems like the members of the council are the wealthiest members of the community, not necessarily the people who would benefit the community most. You feel like some of the members of the city council have no interest in giving back to the community; they just want to feel important by being a part of this organization.

Recently, two of the members of the council have begun to feud. Bill Knight and John Cosby got into an argument over which of them owns a lake that borders both of their property. The council members have begun to take sides, and the council is dividing into two factions. It is getting to the point where city council meetings are not productive. The meetings always turn into a political forum for Bill and John to voice why each is right in their arguments.

Furthermore, the in-fighting has caused the members not to communicate well. There are subcommittees in the council for various projects, including community fundraising, maintenance of Main Street, and community social events. The subcommittees have turned into cliques that are not communicating their progress to each other, and communication is essential for productive functioning of the city council. You think the whole argument is silly, and you refuse to take sides. You are still able to talk to most of the council members and the community still thinks highly of you. You are worried you won’t be able to prevent these conflicts and are doing what you can to prevent public opinion from turning against you too.

Recently, the city council began looking to fund a renovation project of your local community center. Because you are an expert in construction, you designed the application for constructing companies to bid on this project. Furthermore, because you did not want to work closely with your colleagues on projects, given the in-fighting, you decided to design the application by yourself. You were given full autonomy in designing the application and you applied your expertise to do what would be best for the community.

You are now a part of the committee reviewing and approving the proposals. The city has expressed a desire for the renovations to begin as soon as possible, and you feel like the committee is rushing the process a little. You are concerned that you will miss something important in the review that will result in critical errors that may result in the city hiring a contractor that is less than satisfactory. Nine proposals have passed a first screen by meeting the criteria outlined in the application you designed. You and several others conducted more extensive reviews of the nine proposals. The team of reviewers has identified the winning proposal, which has many outstanding features. As you scan it one more time, however, you notice that it does not meet one of the ten criteria used in the initial screening process; this proposal should never have even made it past the first round of evaluations. No one else has caught this. Now you wonder what you should do.

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Martin, A., Bagdasarov, Z. & Connelly, S. The Capacity for Ethical Decisions: The Relationship Between Working Memory and Ethical Decision Making. Sci Eng Ethics 21, 271–292 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-014-9544-x

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