Ethics and Policy

Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services – Sunday Extra

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The Australian Government’s Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry asked me to author a Report on Conflicts of Interest and Disclosure as they investigated the poor ethics of their financial institutions. Following the submission of my report, Sunday Extra on Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) interviewed me to discuss […]

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Insinuation Anxiety: Concern That Advice Rejection Will Signal Distrust After Conflict of Interest Disclosures

Journal Publication /

Abstract When expert advisors have conflicts of interest, disclosure is a common regulatory response. In four experiments (three scenario experiments involving medical contexts, and one field experiment involving financial consequences for both parties), we show that disclosure of a financial or nonfinancial conflict of interest can have a perverse effect on the advisor–advisee relationship. Disclosure,

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Conflicts of interest and disclosure

Report /

The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry was established on 14 December 2017 by the former Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd) to enquire into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industry. I was asked by the Royal Commission to respond to the following questions: How

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Conflict of interest disclosure as an expertise cue: Differential effects of automatic and deliberative processing.

Journal Publication /

Abstract Disclosure—informing advice recipients of the potential bias of an advisor—is a popular tool to manage conflicts of interest. However, conflict of interest disclosures usually compete with a host of other information that is important, relevant or interesting to the advisee. Across one field study and five experiments, we examine the effect of conflict of

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A call for more science in forensic science.

Journal Publication /

Abstract Forensic science is critical to the administration of justice. The discipline of forensic science is remarkably complex and includes methodologies ranging from DNA analysis to chemical composition to pattern recognition. Many forensic practices developed under the auspices of law enforcement and were vetted primarily by the legal system rather than being subjected to scientific

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Policy solutions to conflicts of interest: the value of professional norms

Journal Publication /

Abstract Advisors, such as physicians, financial advisors, lawyers and accountants, often face a conflict of interest – that is, a clash between their professional and personal interests. Such conflicts can lead to biased and corrupt advice. In this paper, I focus on how conflicts of interest can cause good people to unintentionally cross ethical boundaries

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The effects of public disclosure of industry payments to physicians on patient trust: A randomized experiment.

Journal Publication /

Abstract Financial ties between physicians and the pharmaceutical and medical device industry are common, but little is known about how patient trust is affected by these ties. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how viewing online public disclosure of industry payments affects patients’ trust ratings for physicians, the medical profession, and the pharmaceutical

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We Must Strengthen the “Science” in Forensic Science (blog post).

Popular Press /

A national commission created to improve the reliability of forensics has been dealt a possibly fatal blow. Keith Allen Harward served 33 years in jail after being convicted of rape and murder, largely on the strength of bite mark evidence. He was subsequently found to be innocent on the basis of DNA evidence and released.

We Must Strengthen the “Science” in Forensic Science (blog post). Read More »

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