Leader Deception and Ethical Decision-Making

Sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) is a trait that refers to a person's sensitivity to stimuli, ambiguity, and stressful environments. The present study examined the effects of SPS and leader deception on ethical decision-making. Participants completing a scenario-based ethical decision-making task were given information within the task that their hypothetical leader was honest or deceptive. Results revealed that people higher in SPS who had an honest leader made significantly better decisions than both 1) people higher in SPS with a deceptive leader and 2) people lower in SPS in general. Results suggest that for people higher in SPS, cognitive processing may be disrupted by leader deception, so ethics interventions should help them to learn techniques or use cognitive tools to overcome the disruption.