See No Evil: When We Overlook Other People's Unethical Behavior

It is common for people to be more critical of others' ethical choices than of their own. This paper explores those remarkable circumstances in which people see no evil in others' unethical behavior. Specifically, the authors explore the motivated tendency to overlook the unethical behavior of others when they recognize the unethical behavior would harm them, the tendency to ignore unethical behavior unless it is clear, immediate, and direct, the tendency to ignore unethical behavior when ethicality erodes slowly over time, and the tendency to assess unethical behaviors only after the unethical behavior has resulted in a bad outcome, but not during the decision process.