Abstract: To facilitate the development of translation ethics studies in China, more applied translation ethics research is needed. However, presently, scholarly discussions on the possible pathways of such research are far from adequate. Starting from the fact that translators’ translation-ethical practices are a form of situated cognition, this article proposes three complementary cognitive pathways of applied translation ethics research: research exploring the mental processes of the translator’s moral judgements, research describing the social processes of the translator’s moral action implementation, and research to reveal how individual and environmental factors shape the translator’s moral judgements and consequent actions. It is highlighted that cognitive applied translation ethics research can be viewed as an emerging branch of Cognitive Translation Studies (CTS). Also, the accumulative results of such research promise to significantly inform the practice and training of translation ethics.