Lost in cyberspace: ethical decision making in the online environment

Abstract

In this study, a 20-item questionnaire was used to elicit undergraduates' (N = 93) ethical judgment and behavioral intention regarding a number of behaviors involving computers and internet usage. Machiavellianism was found to be uncorrelated with both ethical judgment and behavioral intention. Gender was found to be negatively correlated with both ethical judgment and behavioral intention, such that females judged the behaviors as being less ethical than males, and were less likely to engage in the behaviors than males. A disconnect was found between ethical judgment and behavioral intention, for both males and females, such that the ethical judgment mean for a number of issues was significantly lower (towards the ''unethical'' end of the continuum) than the behavioral intention mean (towards the ''more likely to engage in'' end of the continuum). The study raises questions regarding ethical awareness of technology-related issues, and the authors make suggestions for future research.

Entrepreneurial and ethical adoption behaviour of cloud computing

“…Cloud computing utilises e-commerce to integrate computer storage into business processes. However, the advent of technological innovations has created ethical decision making concerns for people involved in the online environment (McMahon & Cohen, 2009). Prior research has called for more research on why people adopt new technology innovations and their adoption behaviour (e.g.…”

The influence of parents versus peers on Generation Y Internet ethical attitudes

“…Of the few which have, they have examined; the role of technology in teenage moral development (Subrahmanyam and Smahel, 2009), the ethical awareness of technology-related issues (McMahon and Cohen, 2009), how ethical illegal acts are seen (Freestone and Mitchell, 2004), and differences in downloaders and nondownloaders (Robertson, McNeill, Green and Robert, 2012). However, while technological factors have been highlighted as causes for the changing nature of Generation Y's online ethical attitudes (Subrahmanyam and Smahel, 2009;McMahon and Cohen, 2009;Freestone and Mitchell, 2004;Robertson, McNeill, Green and Robert, 2012), work in this area has neglected the role of social factors.…”

“…However, while technological factors have been highlighted as causes for the changing nature of Generation Y's online ethical attitudes (Subrahmanyam and Smahel, 2009;McMahon and Cohen, 2009;Freestone and Mitchell, 2004;Robertson, McNeill, Green and Robert, 2012), work in this area has neglected the role of social factors.…”

An exploratory study of young students’ core virtues of e-character education: The Taiwanese teachers’ perspective

“…In addition, the development of new technology has brought about new behaviors, such as file sharing, hacking, downloading and cyber-squatting, further triggering Internet users' ethical confusion and dilemmas (McMahon & Cohen, 2009). Moreover, moral problems have arisen in gray areas.…”