Cost-of-Ethics Crisis: Beliefs, Decisions, and Justifications in the Job Searches of Computer Science Students in Canada and the United States

TL;DR

This study investigates how computer science students and recent graduates in Canada and the US apply ethical reasoning during their job searches, revealing a disconnect between ethics education and real-world decision making.

Contribution

It provides empirical evidence on the limited influence of ethics education on students' job search decisions and highlights the need for curriculum improvements.

Findings

Most students prioritize compensation, location, and culture over ethics.

Students justify unethical actions with common reasons like money and perceived lack of alternatives.

There is a gap between ethics education and actual decision-making in job searches.

Abstract

Workplace norms in computer science have received growing attention due to a series of recent ethical scandals. One type of response has been a push to improve the ethics education provided to computer science students. Evidence for the effectiveness of ethics education remains mixed; some evidence suggests that norms are changing, while gaps between stated values and practice remain. Our focus here is on whether students, who have received some contemporary CS ethics education, are able to effectively apply ethical reasoning to their own decision-making in what is typically the first significant ethical decision of their careers: their job search. Our study examines the ethical decision making of 129 computer science students and recent graduates during their job searches. We find that most students prioritize factors like compensation, location, and workplace culture over ethical and social issues. Even when expressing ethical concerns, respondents often justify taking actions contradicting their moral views through commonly-shared explanations such as desire to make money or the perceived inability to avoid unethical workplaces. This work sheds light on the disconnect between ethics education and real-world CS graduate decision making. We offer insights for evolving curricula to better address practical ethical dilemmas, with implications for educators and industry.