Bridging intuition and reason: Exploring ethical decision-making through instructional design in case-based learning

Management ethics education requires instructional approaches that go beyond merely transmitting norms to support ethical judgment in context. This study examines how a theory-informed, case-based instructional sequence implemented through EthicApp, a digital learning environment, is associated with shifts in students' judgments about a prosocial academic misconduct dilemma. The sequence translates Schwartz's Integrated Ethical Decision-Making (I-EDM) model into instructional phases that cue intuition, emotion, duty-based reflection, rationalization, and peer consultation. Using an instructional quasi-experimental design with repeated measures, the study examines how systematically varied prompts are associated with shifts in ethical judgments rather than directly measuring cognitive processes. Drawing on Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) and repeated-measures data from 1080 students at two Chilean universities, the findings show that initial intuitive judgments are primarily associated with Binding foundations; emotionally framed prompts increase willingness to help, duty-oriented prompts reduce support for misconduct, and peer consultation moderates polarized positions. Differences by seniority and gender indicate heterogeneous responses. The study contributes to management ethics education, moral psychology, and instructional design by showing how a process model of ethical decision-making can be operationalized as a sequenced pedagogical intervention, and how moral foundations shape initial intuitive judgments, offering guidance for ethics instruction in management education.