0:00:01.515,0:00:05.221
So a friend of mine was riding[br]in a taxi to the airport the other day,

0:00:05.245,0:00:07.955
and on the way, she was chatting[br]with the taxi driver,

0:00:07.979,0:00:10.408
and he said to her, with total sincerity,

0:00:10.432,0:00:13.718
"I can tell you are a really good person."

0:00:13.742,0:00:15.559
And when she told me this story later,

0:00:15.583,0:00:18.758
she said she couldn't believe[br]how good it made her feel,

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that it meant a lot to her.

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Now that may seem[br]like a strong reaction from my friend

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to the words of a total stranger,

0:00:26.143,0:00:27.761
but she's not alone.

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I'm a social scientist.

0:00:29.174,0:00:31.827
I study the psychology of good people,

0:00:31.851,0:00:36.141
and research in my field says[br]many of us care deeply

0:00:36.165,0:00:41.166
about feeling like a good person[br]and being seen as a good person.

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Now, your definition of "good person"[br]and your definition of "good person"

0:00:46.324,0:00:49.064
and maybe the taxi driver's[br]definition of "good person" --

0:00:49.088,0:00:51.071
we may not all have the same definition,

0:00:51.095,0:00:53.920
but within whatever our definition is,

0:00:53.944,0:00:56.745
that moral identity[br]is important to many of us.

0:00:57.154,0:01:02.375
Now, if somebody challenges it,[br]like they question us for a joke we tell,

0:01:02.399,0:01:05.082
or maybe we say[br]our workforce is homogenous,

0:01:05.106,0:01:08.085
or a slippery business expense,

0:01:08.109,0:01:11.307
we go into red-zone defensiveness[br]a lot of the time.

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I mean, sometimes we call out

0:01:14.446,0:01:18.115
all the ways in which we help[br]people from marginalized groups,

0:01:18.139,0:01:19.907
or we donate to charity,

0:01:19.931,0:01:23.970
or the hours we volunteer to nonprofits.

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We work to protect[br]that good person identity.

0:01:27.709,0:01:29.645
It's important to many of us.

0:01:30.517,0:01:32.375
But what if I told you this?

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What if I told you that our attachment[br]to being good people

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is getting in the way[br]of us being better people?

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What if I told you that our definition[br]of "good person" is so narrow,

0:01:46.575,0:01:49.106
it's scientifically impossible to meet?

0:01:49.806,0:01:53.083
And what if I told you[br]the path to being better people

0:01:53.107,0:01:56.043
just begins with letting go[br]of being a good person?

0:01:56.876,0:01:59.516
Now, let me tell you a little bit[br]about the research

0:01:59.540,0:02:01.012
about how the human mind works

0:02:01.036,0:02:02.186
to explain.

0:02:02.540,0:02:06.648
The brain relies on shortcuts[br]to do a lot of its work.

0:02:06.672,0:02:08.297
That means a lot of the time,

0:02:08.321,0:02:11.649
your mental processes are taking place[br]outside of your awareness,

0:02:11.673,0:02:16.411
like in low-battery, low-power mode[br]in the back of your mind.

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That's, in fact, the premise[br]of bounded rationality.

0:02:20.573,0:02:24.014
Bounded rationality is[br]the Nobel Prize-winning idea

0:02:24.038,0:02:26.880
that the human mind[br]has limited storage resources,

0:02:26.904,0:02:29.000
limited processing power,

0:02:29.024,0:02:33.056
and as a result, it relies on shortcuts[br]to do a lot of its work.

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So for example,

0:02:35.833,0:02:38.467
some scientists estimate[br]that in any given moment ...

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Better, better click, right? There we go.

0:02:41.374,0:02:42.381
(Laughter)

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At any given moment,

0:02:43.673,0:02:47.477
11 million pieces of information[br]are coming into your mind.

0:02:48.054,0:02:49.670
Eleven million.

0:02:49.694,0:02:52.567
And only 40 of them[br]are being processed consciously.

0:02:53.051,0:02:55.273
So 11 million, 40.

0:02:56.140,0:02:58.024
I mean, has this ever happened to you?

0:02:58.048,0:03:00.402
Have you ever had[br]a really busy day at work,

0:03:00.426,0:03:02.155
and you drive home,

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and when you get in the door,

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you realize you don't[br]even remember the drive home,

0:03:07.693,0:03:10.196
like whether you had[br]green lights or red lights.

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You don't even remember.[br]You were on autopilot.

0:03:12.974,0:03:16.261
Or have you ever opened the fridge,

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looked for the butter,

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swore there is no butter,

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and then realized the butter[br]was right in front of you the whole time?

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These are the kinds of "whoops" moments[br]that make us giggle,

0:03:28.535,0:03:30.546
and this is what happens in a brain

0:03:30.570,0:03:34.144
that can handle 11 million[br]pieces of information coming in

0:03:34.168,0:03:36.745
with only 40 being processed consciously.

0:03:36.769,0:03:40.149
That's the bounded part[br]of bounded rationality.

0:03:43.352,0:03:45.829
This work on bounded rationality

0:03:45.853,0:03:50.019
is what's inspired work I've done[br]with my collaborators

0:03:50.043,0:03:52.678
Max Bazerman and Mahzarin Banaji,

0:03:52.702,0:03:55.348
on what we call bounded ethicality.

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So it's the same premise[br]as bounded rationality,

0:03:58.798,0:04:04.399
that we have a human mind[br]that is bounded in some sort of way

0:04:04.423,0:04:06.505
and relying on shortcuts,

0:04:06.529,0:04:10.354
and that those shortcuts[br]can sometimes lead us astray.

0:04:10.886,0:04:12.411
With bounded rationality,

0:04:12.435,0:04:16.121
perhaps it affects the cereal[br]we buy in the grocery store,

0:04:16.145,0:04:19.228
or the product we launch in the boardroom.

0:04:19.836,0:04:22.519
With bounded ethicality, the human mind,

0:04:22.543,0:04:24.622
the same human mind,

0:04:24.646,0:04:26.138
is making decisions,

0:04:26.162,0:04:28.948
and here, it's about who to hire next,

0:04:28.972,0:04:30.622
or what joke to tell

0:04:30.646,0:04:32.868
or that slippery business decision.

0:04:34.157,0:04:38.760
So let me give you an example[br]of bounded ethicality at work.

0:04:38.784,0:04:41.570
Unconscious bias is one place

0:04:41.594,0:04:45.103
where we see the effects[br]of bounded ethicality.

0:04:45.127,0:04:49.513
So unconscious bias refers[br]to associations we have in our mind,

0:04:49.537,0:04:53.827
the shortcuts your brain is using[br]to organize information,

0:04:53.851,0:04:56.115
very likely outside of your awareness,

0:04:56.139,0:04:59.591
not necessarily lining up[br]with your conscious beliefs.

0:05:00.503,0:05:03.027
Researchers Nosek, Banaji and Greenwald

0:05:03.051,0:05:05.782
have looked at data[br]from millions of people,

0:05:05.806,0:05:08.563
and what they've found is, for example,

0:05:08.587,0:05:12.080
most white Americans[br]can more quickly and easily

0:05:12.104,0:05:16.373
associate white people and good things

0:05:16.397,0:05:18.690
than black people and good things,

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and most men and women[br]can more quickly and easily associate

0:05:25.288,0:05:29.590
men and science than women and science.

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And these associations[br]don't necessarily line up

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with what people consciously think.

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They may have[br]very egalitarian views, in fact.

0:05:40.206,0:05:44.619
So sometimes, that 11 million[br]and that 40 just don't line up.

0:05:45.402,0:05:47.369
And here's another example:

0:05:47.393,0:05:48.885
conflicts of interest.

0:05:49.372,0:05:53.182
So we tend to underestimate[br]how much a small gift --

0:05:53.206,0:05:56.849
imagine a ballpoint pen or dinner --

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how much that small gift[br]can affect our decision making.

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We don't realize that our mind[br]is unconsciously lining up evidence

0:06:06.202,0:06:09.733
to support the point of view[br]of the gift-giver,

0:06:09.757,0:06:14.578
no matter how hard we're consciously[br]trying to be objective and professional.

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We also see bounded ethicality --

0:06:17.432,0:06:20.809
despite our attachment[br]to being good people,

0:06:20.833,0:06:22.914
we still make mistakes,

0:06:22.938,0:06:26.949
and we make mistakes[br]that sometimes hurt other people,

0:06:26.973,0:06:29.443
that sometimes promote injustice,

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despite our best attempts,

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and we explain away our mistakes[br]rather than learning from them.

0:06:36.810,0:06:39.263
Like, for example,

0:06:39.287,0:06:43.088
when I got an email[br]from a female student in my class

0:06:43.112,0:06:45.660
saying that a reading I had assigned,

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a reading I had been assigning for years,

0:06:48.462,0:06:49.893
was sexist.

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Or when I confused[br]two students in my class

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of the same race --

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look nothing alike --

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when I confused them for each other

0:07:02.208,0:07:04.873
more than once, in front of everybody.

0:07:05.885,0:07:10.208
These kinds of mistakes send us, send me,

0:07:10.232,0:07:13.067
into red-zone defensiveness.

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They leave us fighting[br]for that good person identity.

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But the latest work that I've been doing[br]on bounded ethicality with Mary Kern

0:07:22.553,0:07:26.125
says that we're not[br]only prone to mistakes --

0:07:26.149,0:07:31.388
that tendency towards mistakes depends[br]on how close we are to that red zone.

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So most of the time, nobody's challenging[br]our good person identity,

0:07:35.635,0:07:37.794
and so we're not thinking too much

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about the ethical implications[br]of our decisions,

0:07:40.175,0:07:44.054
and our model shows[br]that we're then spiraling

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towards less and less[br]ethical behavior most of the time.

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On the other hand, somebody[br]might challenge our identity,

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or, upon reflection,[br]we may be challenging it ourselves.

0:07:55.236,0:07:59.360
So the ethical implications[br]of our decisions become really salient,

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and in those cases, we spiral towards[br]more and more good person behavior,

0:08:05.145,0:08:06.986
or, to be more precise,

0:08:07.010,0:08:11.548
towards more and more behavior[br]that makes us feel like a good person,

0:08:11.572,0:08:14.016
which isn't always the same, of course.

0:08:15.413,0:08:19.056
The idea with bounded ethicality

0:08:19.080,0:08:23.282
is that we are perhaps overestimating

0:08:23.306,0:08:28.474
the importance our inner compass[br]is playing in our ethical decisions.

0:08:28.498,0:08:32.983
We perhaps are overestimating[br]how much our self-interest

0:08:33.007,0:08:36.379
is driving our decisions,

0:08:36.403,0:08:42.118
and perhaps we don't realize[br]how much our self-view as a good person

0:08:42.142,0:08:44.666
is affecting our behavior,

0:08:44.690,0:08:50.175
that in fact, we're working so hard[br]to protect that good person identity,

0:08:50.199,0:08:52.493
to keep out of that red zone,

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that we're not actually giving ourselves[br]space to learn from our mistakes

0:08:57.895,0:09:00.212
and actually be better people.

0:09:01.998,0:09:05.039
It's perhaps because[br]we expect it to be easy.

0:09:05.063,0:09:09.153
We have this definition[br]of good person that's either-or.

0:09:09.177,0:09:12.216
Either you are a good person[br]or you're not.

0:09:12.240,0:09:14.860
Either you have integrity or you don't.

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Either you are a racist or a sexist[br]or a homophobe or you're not.

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And in this either-or definition,[br]there's no room to grow.

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And by the way,

0:09:25.619,0:09:28.603
this is not what we do[br]in most parts of our lives.

0:09:28.627,0:09:31.102
Life, if you needed to learn accounting,

0:09:31.126,0:09:32.819
you would take an accounting class,

0:09:32.843,0:09:35.137
or if you become a parent,

0:09:35.161,0:09:38.668
we pick up a book and we read about it.

0:09:38.692,0:09:41.319
We talk to experts,

0:09:41.343,0:09:42.797
we learn from our mistakes,

0:09:42.821,0:09:44.320
we update our knowledge,

0:09:44.344,0:09:46.310
we just keep getting better.

0:09:46.835,0:09:48.791
But when it comes to being a good person,

0:09:48.815,0:09:51.307
we think it's something[br]we're just supposed to know,

0:09:51.331,0:09:52.594
we're just supposed to do,

0:09:52.618,0:09:55.926
without the benefit of effort or growth.

0:09:55.950,0:09:57.790
So what I've been thinking about

0:09:57.814,0:10:01.966
is what if we were to just forget[br]about being good people,

0:10:01.990,0:10:03.755
just let it go,

0:10:03.779,0:10:06.875
and instead, set a higher standard,

0:10:06.899,0:10:09.961
a higher standard[br]of being a good-ish person?

0:10:12.891,0:10:17.114
A good-ish person[br]absolutely still makes mistakes.

0:10:17.138,0:10:20.180
As a good-ish person,[br]I'm making them all the time.

0:10:20.881,0:10:25.255
But as a good-ish person,[br]I'm trying to learn from them, own them.

0:10:25.279,0:10:28.838
I expect them and I go after them.

0:10:28.862,0:10:31.466
I understand there are costs[br]to these mistakes.

0:10:31.490,0:10:35.558
When it comes to issues like ethics[br]and bias and diversity and inclusion,

0:10:35.582,0:10:38.724
there are real costs to real people,

0:10:38.748,0:10:40.063
and I accept that.

0:10:42.602,0:10:44.483
As a good-ish person, in fact,

0:10:44.507,0:10:47.190
I become better[br]at noticing my own mistakes.

0:10:47.214,0:10:49.514
I don't wait for people to point them out.

0:10:49.538,0:10:51.680
I practice finding them,

0:10:51.704,0:10:52.980
and as a result ...

0:10:53.911,0:10:57.528
Sure, sometimes it can be embarrassing,

0:10:57.552,0:10:59.414
it can be uncomfortable.

0:10:59.438,0:11:02.784
We put ourselves[br]in a vulnerable place, sometimes.

0:11:03.968,0:11:06.119
But through all that vulnerability,

0:11:06.143,0:11:10.483
just like in everything else[br]we've tried to ever get better at,

0:11:10.507,0:11:11.809
we see progress.

0:11:11.833,0:11:12.984
We see growth.

0:11:13.008,0:11:15.937
We allow ourselves to get better.

0:11:17.016,0:11:20.437
Why wouldn't we give ourselves that?

0:11:20.944,0:11:25.471
In every other part of our lives,[br]we give ourselves room to grow --

0:11:25.495,0:11:28.026
except in this one, where it matters most.

0:11:29.256,0:11:30.407
Thank you.

0:11:30.431,0:11:35.031
(Applause)