My Most Important Protected Values - Are Not So Protected!

Introduction

This week’s MSLD632 blog strikes at the very core of my values. Hoch & Kunreuther, (2001) call them “Protected Values”, or values that “they often state they would refuse to compromise.”  (p. 244). I will share with you what I believe to be my protected values (as they stand today) and how far I would likely go to support those values. This was a really valuable assignment that made me reflect on what my protected values are. Valuable because the assignment exposes and makes me aware where potential breakdowns in negotiations could occur before they happen so they might be avoided.

My Protected Values

         

            Three personal values considered to be protected values have changed over the years. Mostly due to have much more wisdom through experiencing life’s challenges and observing how the machine of society operates on an adult level. The first protected value is absolutely the most important to me.

1.     Do Not Kill

      The first protected value has taken a 180 degree turn about the time the age thirty-five arrived. Prior to turning thirty-five, if someone killed they deserved to be killed. There was not a lot of historical data in memory to base my protected value, and this was part of the problem. People being put to death by the state may have made the news, but was so infrequent it never caught my attention. Because of this, the connections I should have been making were not made.  Gilbert (2008) helped me understand why I made this error in judgement. Gilbert (2008) asserts that when we make decisions, one of the processes we perform is searching our memory banks for data. “Now, the question I’m going to put to you is whether you think there are more dogs or pigs on leashes…you all know that the answer is dogs. And the way that you know that …is you quickly reviewed in memory the times you’ve seen dogs and pigs on leashes.”

My stance on this issue did not change until I had to write a research paper on the pros and cons of the death penalty. Forced to fill my mind with the data previously missing, questions started arising. The more researched I did, the more my opinion started to turn. The final straw came when statistics on how many African American males where being put to death vs Caucasian males for the very same type of crime in the same states. The data was corroborated using multiple sources.

There was an obvious bias and proof that African American males were being put to death under different rules than Caucasian males. Suddenly there were competing protected values. On one-side, I strongly believed that a person should give their life if they take one. On the other-side fairness in justice was being violated. This violation made a compromise necessary and since then my view is life in prison for a convicted murderer. This gives the convicted a chance for redemption if indeed they did not do the crime, while at the same time, provides just punishment of life in prison for all the others. In particular terrorists who want to go to “heaven” for their reward. Letting them fade away in prison provides more justice.

Working through this week’s exercise made me examine some other areas of killing in exploring trade-offs. Mercy killings where an individual assists a terminally ill person who has made a conscious decision to end their life is acceptable. Also if the death of one means many will live is another.

2.     No Cheating

Growing up my parents instilled into me a very tough stance on cheating and has followed me throughout my life. This value has held steady almost all of the time. The cheating protected value is a good example of how our protected values are not always as protected as we think “even when holding protected values people have some threshold for when it is appropriate to hold this value and when it is appropriated to trade it off.” (Hoch & Kunreuther, 2001, pg. 254). Some of my typical trade-offs are when cheating helps someone in a special way to improve health or protect life, when helping to make a substantial wrong a right, or when cheating protects life. There is only one occasion I can remember (an important distinction!) where cheating was used as a personal gain with no moral compass. I cheated on tests in 9^th grade science class with a group of 3 other students. After three months or so we agreed to stop. Sad part is we were all easily ‘A’ students without cheating!

3.     Protecting the Environment

      While protecting the environment has been important to me throughout my life, in the past few years my stance has hardened significantly. Global warming is very real in my mind, despite what many political pundits say. Our children deserve to inherit a planet as least as clean as the one we were born into. This protected value has the least amount of trade-offs…exactly one. The trade-off is limited to a short period of time with a guarantee that timely restoration will occur. As a young boy, I use to ride my bicycle in the neighborhood for the sole purpose of picking up  trash. This television commercial really hit home with me and was largely responsible for this behavior https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epCKjaStFu0.

How My Protected Values Might Influence My Decisions

      When my family needs to resolve a dispute they call upon me. I am known as the family negotiator and someone who can see both sides and bring people together. This ability is due in large part to having an open mind and few protected values, and none that cannot be compromised. I am the consummate “Nice and Reasonable: Will make concessions and be conciliatory” type negotiator, and holding on to protected values is just not conducive in negotiations. (Hoch & Kunreuther, 2001, pg. 181). The same holds true when making decisions.

Summary

         Lessons learned about protected values in the MSLD 632 program have been helpful to me personally and has helped me understand why I am a good negotiator. In order to be a good negotiator, it helps immensely to not have protected values that have no room for compromise.

References:

Gilbert, D. (2008, Dec). Why we make bad decisions [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_researches_happiness?language=en

Hoch, S. J., & Kunreuther, H. C. (2001). Wharton on making decisions. (1st edition.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.