January 26, 2005: Features
Update
March 28, 2005:
RESULTS
OF PAW’S ONLINE SURVEY ON ETHICAL DILEMMAS
PAW
received 36 responses to its online survey of 14 hypothetical situations
that were used in research on “cognitive conflict and control in
moral judgment” by Princeton researchers Joshua D. Greene *02, Leigh
E. Nystrom, Andrew D. Engell, John M. Darley, and Jonathan D. Cohen. You
may recognize some of these examples as dilemmas posed by contemporary
moral philosophers at Princeton and elsewhere. The survey accompanied
the online contents of our special Jan. 26 issue on “Exploring Ethics.
”
Click here to read the ethical scenarios and compare your responses to other PAW readers.
What
are they thinking?
Illustration by Steven Veach
What do future leaders think about ethical issues? To get some insights, PAW invited all members of the classes of 2003 and 2004 with known e-mail addresses to participate in an online survey about their opinions on everyday dilemmas, ethical issues in public policy, and the role Princeton has played in developing their thinking. About 27 percent of those who received e-mails, or 22 percent of the class members (505 people), responded. We present their answers here.
We did our best to ensure that the results would be as accurate as possible, but this was not a scientific endeavor. The complexities of ethical dilemmas are not easily captured by simple survey questions. Therefore, the responses should be seen only as a glimpse into the views of recent graduates.
CLASS SURVEY
Classes of 2003 and 2004
1 Do you find yourself thinking about whether something you have done,
or want to do, is morally right or wrong?
Often/always ......... 48%
Sometimes ........... 41%
Rarely/never .......... 11%
2 Do you believe that, as the recipient of a Princeton education, you
have an obligation to perform public or community service?
Yes ................ 62%
No ................. 26%
No opinion/undecided .... 12%
3 Do you feel obligated to make charitable contributions regularly?
Yes ................ 54%
No ................. 36%
No opinion/undecided ....10%
4 When investing in a stock, do you ever research a company’s practices
to see that they meet your ethical standards?*
Yes ................ 44%
No ................. 56%
*Thirty-one people who answered the survey did not respond to this question.
5 Would you invest in a highly profitable company that relied on child
labor?*
Yes ................ 11%
No ................. 67%
No opinion/undecided .... 22%
*In a letter to PAW, Fernando
Delgado ’04 politely took us to task for a lack of clarity in this
question. Delgado, who works for a human-rights organization, noted that
some “child labor” — for example, involving 17-year-old
apprentices — is neither illegal nor hazardous, and is fully remunerated.
6 If you could, would you wire your home for cable reception without
paying for it?
Yes ................ 40%
No ................. 50%
No opinion/undecided .... 10%
7 Have you ever illegally downloaded music?
Yes ................ 87%
No ................. 13%
8 Have you ever taken supplies from your workplace to use at home for
personal purposes?
Yes ................ 51%
No ................. 49%
9 When you were a student at Princeton, did you ever cheat on an exam?
Yes ................. 3%
No ................. 97%
10 When you were a student at Princeton, did you ever knowingly plagiarize
or submit work that was not your own?
Yes ................. 1%
No ................. 99%
11 Have you ever lied on a résumé?
Yes ................. 2%
No ................. 98%
12 Since graduating, have you ever taken credit for someone else’s
idea?
Yes ................. 3%
No ................. 97%
13 If you saw a friend or co-worker doing something that you believed
was unethical, would you confront him or her?
Yes ................ 57%
No .................. 6%
No opinion/undecided ... 38%
14 Do you support or oppose embryonic stem-cell research?
Support ............. 79%
Oppose .............. 11%
No opinion/undecided ....10%
15 Do you support or oppose allowing research to clone humans?*
Support ............. 24%
Oppose ............. 52%
No opinion/undecided ... 24%
*Natalie Ram ’04,
a research associate in the Department of Bioethics at Dalhousie University,
pointed out in a letter to PAW that this question did not specify whether
it was referring to reproductive cloning or the cloning of human cells
for research or therapeutic purposes – two questions that have yielded
dramatically different results in surveys of the general U.S. population.
16 Do you support or oppose use of the death penalty in at least some
cases of premeditated murder?
Support ............. 41%
Oppose ............. 47%
No opinion/undecided .... 12%
17 Do you support or oppose a family’s option to remove life support
from a person deemed by doctors to be in a persistent vegetative state?
Support ............. 88%
Oppose .............. 3%
No opinion/undecided .... 9%
18 Do you believe that Princeton traditions such as the honor code gave
you a moral grounding that colleagues from other institutions lack?
Yes ................ 44%
No ................. 40%
No opinion/undecided .... 16%
Note: Totals may not equal 100 percent because of rounding.
Web
Exclusive: ETHICAL
DILEMMAS: A PAW Online survey
What would you do? Take
our online survey
