The Ethical Dilemma
“On my honor, I pledge that I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this assignment.” This statement embodies part of the honor system at Wake Forest University, by which all students agree to live. It encourages a culture of ethical and trustworthy conduct and serves as a foundation of our community.
It was the end of my freshman year at Wake and I was in the middle of taking my Intro to Statistics final exam. I had spent days upon days preparing, but it was proving to be a lot harder than I expected. Math was one of my best subjects in high school, but I had had a very difficult time with this class and knew that many of my fellow classmates had struggled as well.
Each student in the class was allowed to bring one large index card into the final, filled with equations and notes that we had prepared in advance. That card was the only type of resource that was allowed. The professor was not even present during the examination period, which goes to show how much the honor code is trusted here at Wake.
I was one of the last people left in the exam room finishing up my test. From my seat in the back, I paused to look around the room to see who else was still working. I saw a male student in the row in front of me but noticed something strange: he was using his phone during the test in an attempt to Google the answers.
I quickly looked back down at my exam and tried my best to push what I had seen out of my mind so I could concentrate on finishing my test. As I stood up to leave, thoughts about what I should do raced through my head. I did not know the student or even his name, and since the professor was not in the room I was not sure how I could report him.
In the moment, I decided not to do anything. The class was not graded on a curve so I knew I would not be affected by one student’s score. I was also sure that the student who cheated was a few years older than me and it did not seem like my place to report him. Additionally, I was nervous about putting myself out there and potentially having to testify in front of an honor court against someone I barely knew.
Looking back on it now, I wish that I would have made a different decision. I could have gone to the professor’s office to explain the situation and help him identify the student, or maybe sent him an email after the fact. Although there was no external negative impact from my decision, my failure to take action in this situation has stuck with me and served as a defining moment in my ethical development.
I chose to use this example because even though it was a small decision, it reminds me that doing the “right” thing is not usually the easy thing. Sometimes the smallest choices are what shape you into the person you are today, even more so than the big decisions, because they are often applicable to other choices you will face later in life.
My Decision-Making Process Then and Now
As I mentioned before, my decision-making process at the time was slightly flawed compared with how I would approach the situation today with more experience and education in ethics. At the end of that final exam, I was torn between wanting to do what I knew was right, and not wanting to put myself in an uncomfortable situation or create more work for myself if I was not being personally affected. I engaged in several types of moral disengagement that I will outline below, followed by how I would handle the issue today.
Moral justification: In this situation, I justified my non-action by reasoning that this was not necessarily a moral issue because it was an isolated event. I thought that “the greater good” would be better off if I did not say anything because telling the professor would create more work and headache for him, the cheating student, and me.
Distortion of consequences: I also minimized the effect of my non-action by considering that because no one was really harmed by this student cheating except for the student himself, there was no need to say anything.
Diffusion of responsibility: Although I did not blame my non-action on other people, I assumed that if it was really that big of a deal, someone else in the class would have the courage to speak up and tell the professor what had happened. In psychology, this is also called social loafing. I removed the ethical obligation to say something from myself and placed it on my fellow classmates instead.
Bystander effect: Because I was not impacted in any way by this student’s decision to cheat, I was more inclined to sit back and not take action even though I knew it was wrong. If the class had been based on a curve or if the student had been cheating off of my test, I would have felt more of a personal obligation to say something out of self-interest.
All of that being said, I have come a long way since this defining moment, both in terms of experience handling ethical issues, as well as gaining further education on the topic. If I were to face this same situation today, I would use the following foundations and principles to help me make the “right” decision to blow the whistle on the student by telling the professor.
Responsibilities lens: Using this lens would cause me to feel as though I had a personal responsibility to do the right thing, even if it did not directly impact me. It is my duty as a student at Wake Forest to ensure that everyone is held to a high standard, which I can do by leading by example and doing the right thing.
Sanctity foundation: I would use this moral foundation to guide me in making the right decision because it is focused on upholding something that is pure or sacred. At Wake Forest, the honor code should be revered by all and when it is not, it diminishes the impact. Therefore, taking action when the honor code is not being followed is the appropriate response.
Fairness foundation: Finally, this foundation focuses on justice and rights, meaning that all students in the class should be given the same equal opportunity to do well on the exam, with no unfair advantages. Seeing a student trying to use a resource not granted to the rest of the class means that his action was not fair and should be punished.
At the time, I was aware that it was an ethical issue because there were two alternatives to choose from, and neither was the perfect solution. I was not, however, aware of just how much this situation would impact me in the future. Typically when I make a decision, I am able to move on and not dwell on it. In this case, I thought about my decision for the majority of the summer, and continue to think about it when faced with ethical dilemmas today. One of my close friends faced a similar situation in his class last year, and I encouraged him to tell the professor so that he would not make the same mistake I did.
I feel as though my values have been relatively constant since high school, however my ethics were not as developed during my freshman year as they are now. I had a good sense of right and wrong thanks to my Catholic upbringing and positive role models that I had in my life, but I viewed ethics as an extension of the rules rather than as a separate concept. This course and the experience I have had in the “real world” have allowed me to consider many different examples of ethical dilemmas and the factors that influence making the right decision instead of the wrong one, even when rules are not involved.
As mentioned before, I feel that the choices I made in my dilemma were incorrect and I wish I would have acted differently. Based on the concepts discussed in class, it is not difficult for me to understand how I made the wrong choice, using a process of moral disengagement and not having the moral courage to speak up.
This experience encouraged me to take time to reflect on the ethical mistake I made, helping me to prevent the same mistake in the future for myself and for others. I feel more confident in evaluating ethical dilemmas, focusing on my values and various moral foundations, and being more knowledgeable about the potential pitfalls that I may encounter.
My moral courage was tested in this experience, and even though I made the wrong decision at the time, the mistake was necessary for my ethical development to shape me into the person I am today. Doing the “right” thing is usually not the easy thing, but it is the times when you make a mistake or have to struggle that you learn and grow the most.