From the Deans

In my previous blog post, I argued that while a major change in values is rare, we are all vulnerable to gradual – and I’d add, largely unnoticed – changes in our judgment about morally acceptable behavior.

The reason is that we are social beings, and immersion in the enacted norms and values of any social group can ultimately have either an edifying or corrosive effect on what we do, and in what we consider OK to do. It happens at school.  It happens in the workplace.  And there’s a feedback loop: what we believe informs what we do, but there’s also overwhelming evidence that what we do also affects what we believe.

There are a couple of powerful psychological forces that shed light on this. Both are described in Influence: Science and Practice, a terrific book by social psychologist Robert Cialdini

The first force is the remarkable power of “social proof.” We often gauge the correctness or acceptability of a behavior by the degree to which we see others perform it. If “everyone is doing it,” it must be OK… right? The potency of social proof can be seen in all sorts of “herd” behaviors, ranging from teen “sexting” (circulating explicit photos or video of themselves via cell phone), to Enron traders bragging about ripping off “Grandma Millie,” to the orderly mass suicides of 910 souls in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978.

Relying on social proof is a natural, often automatic response that is abetted when the environment is ambiguous. In the realm of moral lapses, we’re particularly vulnerable in the gray areas. But how do you explain the folks at Enron who found themselves way beyond the gray areas?

That takes the one-two punch of another psychological force. Once we commit to a course of action, our innate desire to see ourselves as consistent leads us to look for further justification for our behavior. We’ve committed to a path – sometimes, a slippery one – and now we’re figuring out why it was OK.

Worse, there’s compelling evidence that we interpret who we are by what we see ourselves do.  In other words, our behavior can ultimately change our attitudes, beliefs and values. The more effortful that first step – and the more public – the greater the impact on our self-perception. We started by trying to boost revenues a little. Soon, abetted by others around us responding to the same psychological forces, we’re all joking about ripping off Grandma Millie.

To my mind, the challenge in the workplace is to consciously foster an environment that inspires us to pursue our noblest instincts. Social proof and commitment/consistency can have a positive as well as negative impact on behavior, and ultimately, attitudes, belief, and values.

As individuals, the challenge is to “rust-proof” ourselves against morally corrosive environments. The principles of social proof and commitment & consistency work precisely because they are so innate and automatic. One way to short-circuit these automatic responses is to sensitize ourselves to their impact, and this is a place where business schools can play a useful role. Case studies, role plays, and other exercises that force us to bring our largely automatic assumptions and behaviors to the surface — along with our often unvoiced beliefs and values — can help “rust-proof” our values against corrosive influences.