Tangible and abstract describes how we react more to vivid, immediate inputs than to ones removed in time and space, meaning we can pay insufficient attention to the adverse consequences our actions have on others.

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The self-serving bias causes us to see things in ways that support our best interests and our pre-existing points of view.

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Role morality is the tendency we have to use different moral standards for the different roles we play in society.

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The overconfidence bias is our tendency to be more confident in our ability to act ethically than is objectively justified by our abilities and moral character.

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Obedience to authority describes our tendency to please authority figures. We may place too much emphasis on that goal and, consciously or subconsciously, subordinate the goal of acting ethically.

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Moral myopia is a distortion of moral vision that keeps ethical issues from coming clearly into focus.

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Moral muteness is when we communicate in ways that obscure our moral beliefs and commitments, or don’t voice moral sentiments at all.

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Moral imagination is our ability to think outside the box and envision ways to be both ethical and successful.

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When we do something good we get to thinking of ourselves as pretty good people, and can then give ourselves license to fail to live up to our own ethical standards. This phenomenon is known as moral equilibrium.

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Incentive gaming, or “gaming the system,” refers to when we figure out ways to increase our rewards for performance without actually improving our performance.

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