Every so often, you encounter a course that reshapes how you see the world — and yourself. For me, the course begins with Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes — a parable most of us remember from childhood. It’s a simple story of vanity, fear, and silence. Yet Palazzo and Hoffrage turn it into a masterclass on organisational behaviour. Through that fairy tale, we meet the central idea that runs through the entire course:

Context is stronger than reason.

We like to imagine unethical behaviour as the domain of “bad apples.” But the research — and the case studies — tell a more unsettling story. It is often good people in bad systems who commit ethical violations without even noticing. As the professors put it, ethical blindness is not a character flaw; it’s a contextual failure of awareness. Under the pressure of strong situations: hierarchy, fear, conformity, and narrow framing, reason can simply switch off.

From there, the course takes us on a fascinating journey. We move from The Emperor’s New Clothes to the Ford Pinto scandal, to Enron, and to modern corporate crises where data, incentives, and ambition override judgment. Each case feels like a mirror. You begin to see echoes of the same dynamics — pressure, framing, loyalty, and silence — playing out in boardrooms, project teams, and even your own decisions.

What makes the course truly compelling is the way it interlaces philosophy, psychology, and management practice. We go from Augustine and Kant to Zimbardo and Milgram, from moral philosophy to social experimentation. Yet the message remains consistent:
our ethical failures are rarely the product of evil intent; they are often the result of situational blindness.

As a leadership coach, I found myself reflecting deeply on how context shapes behaviour in organisations. I’ve seen high-performing professionals make ethically ambiguous decisions — not because they lacked values, but because the system rewarded results more than reflection. The course provides a vocabulary and a framework to analyse those situations: framing, routines, temporal dynamics, institutional pressures. It shows how bounded rationality and bounded morality go hand in hand.

Perhaps most importantly, the final modules focus on prevention. The professors invite us to design defence strategies against ethical blindness; practical ways to widen our frame, challenge our assumptions, and build organisations where reason and conscience reinforce each other.

It’s not about compliance checklists. It’s about cultivating moral imagination; the ability to see the ethical dimension of decisions before the damage is done.

In the end, Unethical Decision Making isn’t a course about villains. It’s a course about all of us. It reminds us that good intentions are not enough; that we are all vulnerable to the quiet drift from reason to rationalisation. And it gives us hope, that by understanding the forces at play, we can build systems that keep us awake.

If you’re a leader navigating complexity, or a coach helping others do so, this course is a profound reminder:

Integrity is not just a personal trait. It’s a design choice.