Edible Cookie Dough

Summary: Trainees first complete an exercise in which they judge their likely ethical behavior and the behavior of others; this exercise is revisited at the end of this block to demonstrate biases. Next is a presentation of a classic study in which people behaved according to authority even though they did not feel comfortable with what they were being asked to do. After the study is presented, the class engages in a discussion of the results. The next activity begins with another exercise in which the participants make a decision about how they would act in a situation and how they think a typical person would act in this scenario. Following this activity, the findings from a sample of actual participants are discussed. Finally, a model describing this process of how people make biased judgments is presented and discussed along with a return to the trainees’ responses to the first activity.

1. Block 3 Overview (2 minutes)

a. Introduce the subject and goals of Block 3 while noting how it relates to the EDM model

b. Briefly describe the activities of Block 3

c. Instructor Resources

i. PowerPoint Slides

ii. Instructor Discussion 3.1

2. Self-Enhancement Demonstration Handout (5 minutes)

a. Provide instructions for activity

b. Instructor Resources

i. PowerPoint Slides

ii. Instructor Activity 3.1

iii. Handout 3.1

3. Milgram Obedience Studies (35 minutes)

a. Introduce the background of the Milgram obedience studies

b. Show clip from the Milgram film

c. Engage in discussion of the original and replication studies

d. Show clip from the replication study

e. Instructor Resources

i. PowerPoint Slides

ii. Instructor Discussion 3.2

iii. Videos

4. Ethical Decisions Research (25 minutes)

a. Distribute handout for trainees to read and complete

b. Describe the study related to the handout

c. Lead a brief discussion about people’s misperceptions of themselves

d. Instructor Resources

i. PowerPoint Slides

ii. Instructor Discussion 3.3

iii. Handout 3.2

5. How People Predict Their Hypothetical Behavior (25 minutes)

a. Explain the Projected-Self Model

b. Explain part of the Projected-Self Model, which describes the bias to predict that our future behaviors will be aligned with our values as a source of mispredictions in ethical problems

c. Ask trainees to report some of their results from Handout 3.1 completed at the beginning of the block

d. Lead a discussion on why understanding how we are biased in our belief that we will act in accordance with our values can be important as a source of information which can allow researchers to pre-empt their own biases

e. Summarize relevance of the materials covered in this section of the training

f. Instructor Resources

i. PowerPoint Slides

ii. Instructor Discussion 3.4

iii. Handout 3.3