Exploring the relations between ethical reasoning and moral intuitions among Chinese engineering students in a course on global engineering ethics

Research in engineering ethics has assessed the ethical reasoning of students mostly in the US. However, it is not clear that ethical judgements are primarily the result of reasoning or that conclusions based on US samples would be true of global populations. China now graduates and employs more STEM majors than any other country, but the moral cognition and ethics education of Chinese engineers remain understudied. To address this gap, a study examined the relations between ethical reasoning, intuitions and education among engineering students in China. It found that (1) ethical reasoning is positively related to an emphasis on care and fairness and (2) global ethics education results in significantly higher levels of ethical reasoning, as well as a greater concern with fairness and loyalty. The relation between ethical reasoning and intuitions in China is like that of students in the US, but ethics education affects students in China differently.