South Dakota Crop Insurance Practice Exam

Which hazard is associated with an individual's ethical standards?

1. Physical hazard

2. Moral hazard

3. Morale hazard

4. Environmental hazard

The correct answer is: Moral hazard

The concept of moral hazard refers specifically to situations where an individual's behavior may change as a result of having insurance protection. This term is often used to describe scenarios where there is a potential for someone to take on excessive risks because they do not have to bear the full consequences of those risks, typically because they are insured against them. In the context of ethical standards, if an individual has a low sense of ethics, they may engage in riskier behavior, believing they can mitigate any consequences through insurance. For instance, a farmer who has crop insurance might make less effort to protect their crops from potential damage if they feel covered by the insurance policy; this illustrates a shift in behavior based on the perceived safety net provided by the insurance. Such behavior directly connects to their ethical stance toward risk management and responsibility, making moral hazard the correct choice for this question. The other options refer to different types of risks: physical hazards relate to tangible environmental risks, morale hazards reflect a general carelessness due to having insurance, and environmental hazards deal with risks arising from the environment itself, such as natural disasters or pollution, which do not inherently correlate with an individual's ethical standards.