Teaching Behavioral Ethics (Using “Ethics Unwrapped” Videos and Educational Materials)

The business world is rife with scandals, making it especially important to teach ethical decision‐making in business schools. Unfortunately, the “shadow curriculum” that sometimes exists in business schools makes it especially challenging to teach ethics effectively. Behavioral ethics research, however, is fascinating to study and its application carries the potential to improve students' ethical decisions and actions. This article describes the basics of behavioral ethics, including the fundamental notion that good people do bad things because of the influence of social and organizational pressures, cognitive heuristics and biases, and a variety of situational factors. The article also introduces readers to a free resource that has proven effective in improving business ethics pedagogy‐the videos and supporting materials of the Ethics Unwrapped Educational Program produced at the McCombs School of Business. The Ethics Unwrapped site is available for all to use at http://EthicsUnwrapped.utexas.edu and is a resource for educators and students at more than a thousand colleges and universities around the world.