Ethics

Ethics questions get students thinking about right and wrong in everyday situations. These range from simple moral choices to complex dilemmas about fairness, honesty, and responsibility.

Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.

Beginner (A1-A2)

1. Have you ever helped a stranger? Tell me about it.
2. Do you share your food with other people? Who do you share with?
3. Do you say ‘sorry’ a lot? When do you say it the most?
4. Do you always tell the truth? When do you not?
5. Have you ever found money on the ground? What did you do with it?
6. Do you let people go in front of you in line? Why?
7. What do you do when someone is rude to you?
8. Have you ever broken a promise? What happened?
9. Is there a person in your life who always does the right thing? What do they do?

Elementary (A2)

1. Who is the most honest person you know? What makes them that way?
2. What are three rules that are important in your family? Why?
3. When you were a child, what did your parents teach you about right and wrong?
4. Who do you go to when you need advice about a difficult decision? Why do you trust them?
5. Do you return things to a store when you change your mind? What does that usually look like?
6. Do you wait in line or do you sometimes cut in front of other people? What do most people do in your country?
7. What is the biggest lie you have ever told? What happened?
8. What kind of cheating do you see most often in school or at work? Why do people do it?
9. Do you ever donate money to charity? Why?
10. Have you ever seen someone being treated unfairly? What did you do?
11. What is something you borrowed and forgot to return? Why didn’t you give it back?
12. Have you ever told on someone (told a teacher or parent what they did)? What happened?

Intermediate (B1)

1. Do you consider yourself to be an ethical person? Why or why not?
2. Have you ever found a smart phone? What did you do? If you haven’t, what do you think you would do?
3. Would you risk your life to save another person? Why or why not?
4. Would you jump into a deep river to save a drowning animal? How far would you go to help an animal in danger?
5. What should a person do if they find a wallet? What do people usually do? What would you do?
6. How often do you lie? When is it okay to lie?
7. If you saw a pickpocket stealing someone’s wallet, what would you do?
8. Do you trust people easily, or does it take time? Why?
9. What don’t you like about how some businesses treat their workers? Why?
10. Do you treat all your friends the same, or do you have favorites? Why?
11. Have you ever seen someone do something wrong but not said anything? What stopped you?
12. Do you think people are basically good or basically selfish? Give me some examples.
13. If you could cheat on a test and never get caught, would you do it? Why or why not?
14. When is it okay to break the law? Give some examples.
15. Should companies be allowed to test their products on animals? Why or why not?
16. Do you think it’s wrong to download movies and music illegally? How so?
17. Should people always tell the truth, even if it hurts someone’s feelings? Why or why not?
18. Should parents spy on their children’s phones and social media? Why or why not?
19. If someone gives you too much change at a store, do you keep it or give it back? What matters most in that situation?
20. Is it ever okay to gossip about someone? When does talking about someone cross the line?

Upper-Intermediate (B2)

1. What are some ethical dilemmas you have faced?
2. Is stealing ALWAYS wrong? When is it right to steal?
3. If you could save many people by killing one person, would you?
4. What makes a person act ethically or unethically?
5. Should poor people be punished for stealing if they are stealing to feed their family? Why or why not?
6. If you found out your close friend was cheating at work, what would you do? What would you consider before deciding?
7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of teaching ethics as a subject in schools? How would it be different from just learning right and wrong at home?
8. How does growing up in a strict family affect the way someone thinks about right and wrong?
9. When a company does something unethical but legal — like polluting within legal limits or paying workers the bare minimum — whose responsibility is it to change things: the company, the government, or the consumers?
10. Compare how people make ethical decisions based on religion versus based on personal experience. What’s different about each approach?
11. How is lying to protect someone’s feelings different from lying to protect yourself?
12. Is it possible to be a good person and work for a company that does harmful things? Where do you draw the line between earning a living and supporting something you disagree with?
13. Some people say that ethics change over time — things that were acceptable 100 years ago are wrong now, and things we do today might be wrong in the future. What are some examples? What do you think will change next?
14. How is the ethical responsibility of a leader different from that of a regular person? Should leaders be held to a higher standard?
15. What are the ethical implications of using AI to make decisions about hiring, loans, or criminal sentencing?
16. Why do people sometimes know the right thing to do but still choose not to do it? What factors make it harder to act ethically?
17. How does the desire to appear ethical to others sometimes conflict with actually being ethical?
18. How do economic systems shape what people consider fair or unfair? Give me some examples from different societies.
19. When someone acts unethically to achieve a good outcome, how should we weigh their intentions against their actions?

Advanced (C1)

1. When companies collect personal data to improve their products but also sell it to advertisers, how should we decide where to draw the line between useful innovation and exploitation?
2. Wealthy countries often outsource their most polluting industries to poorer nations, then criticize those nations for their environmental records. How does this double standard shape international ethics?
3. Many people say they care about ethical products — fair-trade coffee, cruelty-free cosmetics, sustainable clothing — but most still buy the cheapest option. What keeps the gap between people’s values and their actual behavior so wide?
4. Social media companies design their platforms to be as addictive as possible, knowing this harms users’ mental health. How is this different from — or similar to — a tobacco company that knew its products caused cancer?
5. When a country has a history of colonialism or slavery, how far should the current generation go to address those wrongs? At what point does historical responsibility end, if ever?
6. Free speech laws protect people’s right to say offensive things, but hate speech laws try to protect people from being harmed by words. How do societies decide where one person’s freedom ends and another person’s safety begins?
7. Some of the world’s greatest art, architecture, and scientific discoveries were made possible by unethical means — slave labor, stolen resources, or exploited workers. Should we celebrate these achievements, or does how they were created change their value?
8. In many countries, whistleblowers who expose corporate or government wrongdoing are legally protected but often face retaliation, career destruction, and social isolation anyway. What does this gap between legal protection and real-world consequences tell us about how societies actually treat people who challenge powerful institutions?
9. When natural disasters or crises happen, people often show incredible generosity — but the same communities sometimes turn on refugees or immigrants in normal times. Why do people’s ethics seem to change depending on the situation, and what does that tell us about how compassion actually works?
10. Most people agree that child labor is wrong, but millions of children still work in factories and farms that supply products sold in wealthy countries. If consumers, governments, and companies all say they’re against it, why does it keep happening? Where does the real responsibility lie?
11. In the age of social media, people can be publicly shamed and have their careers destroyed for something they said or did years ago. How should we think about the relationship between accountability and forgiveness when the internet never forgets?

PDF: Download a PDF of all the questions