Three Nudges Toward Ethical Behavior

Max Bazerman, professor at Harvard Business School, recently published A New Model for Ethical Leadership. Create more value for society. 

In the article Max discusses his approach to improving ethical decision-making. Max’s approach, based on Utilitarianism, suggests that ethical behavior maximizes “utility” in the world (Max calls this “value”). So one’s goal is to create as much aggregate value as possible. How can we create more value through the introduction of new products that make a positive impact on our world? From our standpoint, how can Slice reduce fraud and make insurance more efficient while also helping people be ethical? 

We are fortunate to spend a lot of time working with Max on various platform capabilities and insurance products. With his insights, we’ve incorporated strategies into our platform (Insurance Cloud Services) and our methodology that nudge customers toward more ethical behavior. Here are 3 examples 

1. Video Claim Submission. As Max highlights in the article, we ask claimants to submit a short video taken with a phone to describe a claim. We do so because most people are less likely to be dishonest in a video than in writing.
2. Questions. We ask specific questions rather than ambiguous questions, as this type of question is more likely to elicit an accurate response. For example, “How much did you pay for that object?” – not “What is it worth?”
3. Corroboration. We ask “Who else knows about the loss?” This one is fairly straightforward. People are less likely to be deceptive when others might learn of their dishonesty.

To read Max's full paper, you can find it here: A New Model for Ethical Leadership. Create more value for society.