The Dark Pattern: The Hidden Dynamics of Corporate Scandals

From the creators of the theory of ethical blindness comes an investigation into how corporate scandals happen, revealing the common pattern behind them and how your organization can avoid them

Too often, the stories of corporate scandals are narrated like Hollywood movies in which once-celebrated CEOs are unmasked as sociopaths and ultimately convicted for their crimes. What we fail to realize, however, is that most bad things are done by average people with honorable values and without bad intentions.

In The Dark Pattern, two experts in business ethics and decision-making challenge the conventional view that corporate misconduct happens because of a handful of bad actors. Instead, the book shows how entire organizations can fall off the moral cliff because good people become ethically blind.

Drawing on the latest insights from behavioral science, the authors identify nine toxic elements that lead to corporate scandals and offer nine actionable lessons for building morally resilient organizations. Essential reading for business leaders, The Dark Pattern offers real-world guidance for defending companies against the subtle dynamics of moral erosion.

GUIDO PALAZZO is a professor of business ethics at the University of Lausanne and a business adviser in Switzerland. His work has been published in leading management journals such as the Academy of Management Review and the Academy of Management Journal.

ULRICH HOFFRAGE is a professor of decision theory at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. He is a highly cited psychologist who builds and tests models of bounded rationality to better understand how people decide and navigate in a social world characterized by risk and uncertainty.