Table 1.

Complete List of Biases

Bias	Operational Definition
Abdication of Responsibility	Inability to take responsibility for an ethical problem
Changing Norms and Standards	Discounting major changes in the field (e.g. new statistical procedures, research designs, or professional guidelines)
Diffusion of Responsibility	Discussing a problem with others in order to allow blame for a poor decision to be shared, so that individuals feel less personally responsible for the decision than if they had made the decision alone
False Consensus	The tendency of individuals to assume that others share their way of thinking about and acting in an ethical situation
Forcing a Decision	Making an arbitrary decision in order to have an answer and to escape the feeling of doubt and uncertainty
Framing	Inappropriately defining a situation as too narrow or too broad
Illusion of Control	Failing to recognize the dynamic nature of the situation because of an unrealistic assessment of their ability to control the situation
Inadequate Role Balancing	Unequal recognition of one’s roles and the corresponding responsibilities
Maintaining the Status Quo	Failing to act or acting in a specific way to maintain the modus operandi in order to avoid negative consequences
Misapplication of Principles	Failure to apply, misapplication, and/or lack of knowledge of principles
Moral Insensitivity	Awareness of how one’s actions affect others’ specifically, failure to recognize the ethical aspects of a situation and an inaccurate assessment of the importance of the ethical implications of the situation
Naivete	Failure to recognize the boundaries of one’s knowledge and expertise required in a given situation
Self-Handicapping	Creating and drawing attention to obstacles in order to protect themselves from potential failure
Self-Justification	When a person encounters cognitive dissonance, or a situation in which a person’s behavior is inconsistent with their beliefs, that person tends to justify the behavior and deny any negative feedback associated with the behavior
Undue Autonomy	Taking excessive responsibilities beyond one’s capabilities
Unquestioning Deference to Authority	Always accepting, without question, the opinions, guidance, and strategies utilized by professional authorities
Unwarranted Compromise	Compromising personal standards in order to avoid conflict
Willful Ignorance	Ignorance of outcomes of information that would cause one to move backwards, abandon, current plans, or to face negative consequences