Research statement
Why do people behave unethically, and what can be done to ensure they behave more ethically? Ethical understanding and reasoning alone do not result in ethical behaviors. This project addresses these questions in relation to global engineering and technology ethics. Engineering and technology affect billions of lives, but ensuring ethical behaviors in these contexts is especially difficult, given the emergent nature of technology and global environments of engineering. To address these difficulties, this project uses insights from and methodologies associated with the behavioral sciences, with a focus on the distinctive characteristics of cross-cultural and international environments involving technology.
Give an example of a behavior you consider prototypically unethical
How do culture and education affect conceptions of ethics? To answer this question, a website was developed. Using network analysis and semantic maps, a pilot study explored understandings of ethics by engineering students in China, based on responses to: 1. give an example of a behavior you consider prototypically unethical 2. explain what makes this behavior unethical. Preliminary results indicate that engineering students in China conceive of unethical behaviors as ones where companies negatively affect people through their products, and that the harmful, other-regarding nature of these behaviors is what makes them unethical. Would engineering students in the US agree? Non-engineering students in China? Which makes a greater difference, nationality or major? These are some of the questions addressed by this project.
How do culture and education affect conceptions of ethics? To answer this question, a website was developed. Using network analysis and semantic maps, a pilot study explored understandings of ethics by engineering students in China, based on responses to: 1. give an example of a behavior you consider prototypically unethical 2. explain what makes this behavior unethical. Preliminary results indicate that engineering students in China conceive of unethical behaviors as ones where companies negatively affect people through their products, and that the harmful, other-regarding nature of these behaviors is what makes them unethical. Would engineering students in the US agree? Non-engineering students in China? Which makes a greater difference, nationality or major? These are some of the questions addressed by this project.
Explain what makes this behavior unethical