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Instead of ending a group meeting asking if anyone has any questions, a professor at UT Arlington suggests asking participants if they can think of anything that might go wrong with the plan discussed.

"It helps get people thinking about who could potentially be harmed or if there is a part of the project we're just not thinking about," said Logan Watts, an assistant professor of psychology at UT Arlington and lead author on a new study exploring ethical decision-making within teams. "This helps people focus on potential issues before they can become ethical problems."

The research is published in the journal Science and Engineering Ethics.

Historically, studies on ethical decision-making have focused on individual researchers. However, researchers rarely work alone. Plus, studies on the psychology of groups have shown that people think and behave differently when they work as part of a team rather than alone, so it's important to understand team dynamics.

"The integrity of scientific enterprises depends a great deal on faith that researchers will 'play by the rules,'" said Watts. "But that trust can erode quickly when researchers are caught fabricating data, plagiarizing work, failing to disclose conflicts of interest, or engaging in poor research practices that can harm others."

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