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Dilemmas, Conspiracies, and Sophie’s Choice: Vignette Themes and Ethical Judgments

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  • Peter Mudrack
  • E. Mason

Abstract

Knowledge about ethical judgments has not advanced appreciably after decades of research. Such research, however, has rarely addressed the possible importance of the content of such judgments; that is, the material appearing in the brief vignettes or scenarios on which survey respondents base their evaluations. Indeed, this content has seemed an afterthought in most investigations. This paper closely examined the vast array of vignettes that have appeared in relevant research in an effort to reduce this proliferation to a more concise set of overarching vignette themes. Six generic themes emerged from this process, labeled here as Dilemma, Classic, Conspiracy, Sophie’s Choice, Runaway Trolley, and Whistle Blowing. Each of these themes is characterized by a unique combination of four key factors that include the extent of protagonist personal benefit from relevant vignette activities and victim salience in vignette descriptions. Theme identification enabled inherent ambiguities in vignettes that threaten construct validity to come into sharp focus, provided clues regarding appropriate vignette construction, and may help to make sense of patterns of empirical findings that heretofore have seemed difficult to explain. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

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  • Peter Mudrack & E. Mason, 2013. "Dilemmas, Conspiracies, and Sophie’s Choice: Vignette Themes and Ethical Judgments," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 639-653, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:118:y:2013:i:3:p:639-653
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-012-1611-0
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    3. Hervé Stolowy & Yves Gendron & Jodie Moll & Luc Paugam, 2019. "Building the Legitimacy of Whistleblowers: A Multi‐Case Discourse Analysis," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 7-49, March.
    4. Smith, Brent, 2019. "Personality facets and ethics positions as directives for self-driving vehicles," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 115-124.
    5. Michal Krawczyk & Joanna Tyrowicz & Wojciech Hardy, 2020. "Online and physical appropriation: evidence from a vignette experiment on copyright infringement," Behaviour and Information Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(4), pages 481-496, April.
    6. Tabea Franziska Hirth-Goebel & Barbara E. Weißenberger, 2019. "Management accountants and ethical dilemmas: How to promote ethical intention?," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 287-322, October.
    7. Peter E. Mudrack & E. Sharon Mason, 2022. "Vignette Themes and Moral Reasoning in Business Contexts: The Case for the Defining Issues Test," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(4), pages 979-995, December.
    8. Mark S. Schwartz, 2016. "Ethical Decision-Making Theory: An Integrated Approach," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(4), pages 755-776, December.
    9. Elizabeth Jonson & Linda McGuire & Deirdre O’Neill, 2015. "Teaching Ethics to Undergraduate Business Students in Australia: Comparison of Integrated and Stand-alone Approaches," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 477-491, December.

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