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Home > News & Events > Events Calendar > Justifying and Rationalizing Questionable Behavior
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emailThursday, February 7, 2013
Justifying and Rationalizing Questionable Behavior
Michael Norton, Associate Professor of Business
Administration, Harvard Business School
How do people justify their sometimes regrettable behavior to
themselves – such as discriminating against others on the basis of
gender and race? We suggest that a common strategy used to avoid
the appearance of bias when making such decisions is to cloak
decision-making in more acceptable terms: when people make
decisions based on questionable criteria – such as gender – they
scan the environment for other less controversial attributes that
can be recruited to justify their decisions. We demonstrate this
general process in domains ranging from racism in the legal system
(Blacks being disproportionately excluded from juries in trials
with Black defendants) to gender discrimination (women being passed
over for traditionally “male” jobs), showing that in each case,
decision-makers are careful to find other mundane attributes to
mask the true reasons underlying their biased decision
making.
Lunch will be provided. An RSVP is not required as this is an open
event.
- Location:WAPPP Cason Seminar Room, Taubman Building, Room 102
- Date:Thursday, February 7, 2013
-
Time:11:40 AM
