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Out of sight, out of mind: How high-level construals can decrease the ethical framing of risk-mitigating behavior.

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Area of Science:

  • Organizational Psychology
  • Behavioral Ethics
  • Risk Management

Background:

  • Organizational failures frequently result in harm to people, organizations, and the environment.
  • Investigations reveal employees often unintentionally act unethically, deprioritizing safety due to resource allocation choices.
  • A key factor may be psychological distance—spatial or temporal—from the eventual harm.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how construal level theory explains why employees fail to perceive harm.
  • To examine how work context construal influences harm perception and ethical framing of risk mitigation.
  • To test the hypothesis that abstract construals reduce harm perception and ethical obligation.

Main Methods:

  • Six studies were conducted, including correlational surveys and field experiments.
  • Participants included aviation employees, offshore drilling workers, and healthcare professionals (nurses).
  • Construal Level Theory was applied to analyze work context construal's impact.

Main Results:

  • High-level (abstract) work context construals significantly reduced perceptions of potential harm.
  • Reduced harm perception led to framing risk-mitigating behaviors as less of an ethical obligation.
  • Findings were consistent across diverse employee groups and study designs.

Conclusions:

  • Psychological distance, particularly through abstract construals of work context, plays a critical role in organizational failures.
  • This research highlights how distancing can lead to overlooking ethical responsibilities related to safety.
  • Implications are significant for managing safety in increasingly remote and technologically mediated work environments.