ABSTRACT
Too many sets of perfectly rational plans to strengthen ethics in organizations wander slowly or run headlong into trouble because they don’t take account of one obvious but often underestimated truth: Neither the people trying to implement the plans nor other individuals who make up the organization act like purely rational beings. Unrealistic plans treat people as if they were computers programmed to reason logically and without bias and to behave following the rules of rationality. However, our minds often follow nonrational rules. This chapter discusses the most common heuristics and other human tendencies that baffle and break even the best laid plans to strengthen organizational ethics. These include the Planning Fallacy, Optimistic Bias, the Bias of Illusory Ethical Superiority, Mindlessness, Disengagement, Confirmation Bias, GroupThink, Correspondence Bias, and WYSIATI (What You See Is All There Is) Bias.
