The goal of this study is to support game designers in the selection and implementation of game mechanisms to promote players' moral sensitivity. A lack of moral sensitivity may lead people to behave unethically, without awareness for their actions' moral implications. In this study, we conduct a theorybased evaluation of 20 distinct game mechanisms in view of their potential to promote moral sensitivity. Moral sensitivity is thereby operationalized in terms of three learning outcomes: Empathic concern for relevant groups, alertness to values/principles, and awareness for one's vulnerability to biases. This study suggests that moral sensitivity is best promoted through a careful combination of game mechanisms, addressing all three learning outcomes.

Moral sensitivity, understood as an individual's capability of identifying and ascribing importance to moral issues when they arise, is often considered a key competence in professional life and a precondition of ethical behavior. With a focus on business settings, this article presents a new measure to assess individual's sensitivity to moral and business values. The measure was developed using a vignette-based domain-specific approach and validated in two studies. In Study 1, we compared our instrument and various convergent and divergent scales to obtain the first evidence of the construct validity of the instrument. Study 2 provides evidence of criterion validity by comparing the sensitivity to moral and business-related issues between a sample of business managers/bankers and employees of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The results demonstrate that business managers/bankers reveal lower scores of moral sensitivity than employees of NGOs. Further directions for moral sensitivity research and limitations are discussed.Abstract: Moral sensitivity, understood as an individual's capability of identifying and ascribing importance to moral issues when they arise, is often considered a key competence in professional life and a precondition of ethical behavior. With a focus on business settings, this article presents a new measure to assess individual's sensitivity to moral and business values. The measure was developed using a vignette-based domain-specific approach and validated in two studies. In Study 1, we compared our instrument and various convergent and divergent scales to obtain the first evidence of the construct validity of the instrument. Study 2 provides evidence of criterion validity by comparing the sensitivity to moral and business-related issues between a sample of business managers/bankers and employees of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The results demonstrate that business managers/bankers reveal lower scores of moral sensitivity than employees of NGOs. Further directions for moral sensitivity research and limitations are discussed.

In order to manage ethical challenges in organizations and the workplace, moral sensitivity (MS)—the ability to identify and ascribe importance to moral issues when they arise in the workplace—is seen as the key prerequisite by researchers and professionals. However, despite the importance of MS, satisfactory reliable and valid measures to assess this competence are to date lacking. The present research tests the psychometric qualities of a revised MS measure for the business domain (R-MSB) that is designed to assess individual differences in moral and business-related value sensitivity. We present three different analyses with two heterogeneous samples of Swiss and German employees (total N = 1168). The first two studies provide good evidence of the measures’ factorial structure, its construct, and criteria-related validity. The third study examines how affective and empathic responses are associated with MS and business sensitivity (BS). The results support the view that empathic responsiveness enhances MS. The instrument’s theoretical and practical strengths, limitations, and avenues for future research are discussed.

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In this contribution, we present the conception of the serious moral game uMed: Your Choice for the training of medical students' moral sensitivity and resoluteness. First, we offer an overview of the moral competences that we aim to train through the game: an empathic concern for relevant groups; an awareness of one's susceptibility to biases and stress, moral schemas and scripts for automatized sensitivity under time pressure; a sensitivity to attitudes of moral disengagement; and skills for speaking up about ethical issues. Second, we present the educational game mechanisms and contents that we have selected and combined to achieve the desired learning outcomes: playing an intern at a clinic, learners deal with several cases, in which they have to interact with patients, patients' relatives, and co-workers. Their decisions, including the way they communicate, have immediate as well as delayed consequences, and players receive constant feedback in terms of three value categories (empathy, integrity, efficiency). Third, we discuss how we employ the game within our study program. We close with a discussion of a possible critique of our design and with an outlook on the further design process.