Moral disengagement
Moral disengagement is a psychological and sociological concept that describes how individuals rationalize and justify immoral behaviors, allowing them to bypass ethical and moral boundaries. This process can manifest in various ways, such as minimizing personal responsibility, dismissing the consequences of one's actions, or dehumanizing those affected by their behavior. For instance, individuals might blame victims for their actions or consider their misdeeds as beneficial to others, thus preserving their self-image and sense of worth.
Psychologist Albert Bandura identified four primary mechanisms of moral disengagement: moral justification, diffusing responsibility, dismissing consequences, and dehumanizing victims. Factors contributing to moral disengagement may include societal influences, such as media representations or peer behaviors, as well as individual psychological traits. Although often associated with those exhibiting certain emotional issues, moral disengagement can also affect otherwise typical individuals, particularly in challenging circumstances. Understanding this concept is essential, as it highlights the complexities of human morality and the societal factors that can encourage unethical behavior.
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Subject Terms
Moral disengagement
Moral disengagement is a term from sociology and psychology that refers to the way people who engage in bad or immoral behavior rationalize, justify, and excuse their actions. The person or persons involved often believe that the usual ethical and moral boundaries do not apply to them. They may also blame someone else, such as the victim of their behavior, for causing the immoral behavior.
Moral disengagement happens when a person minimizes their role in the behavior, discounts the consequences of that behavior, or diminishes the importance of the other person or entity that is affected by their actions. This disengagement allows the person to take part in immoral behavior without this negatively affecting their self-image and sense of self-worth. The person essentially convinces him or herself that the usual rules do not apply to them and their behavior is justified.
The process of moral disengagement leads to a number of problems at all levels of society. At the same time, some experts say factors in society contribute to the likelihood of some people or groups of people becoming morally disengaged. They point to societal influences such as television and movies, social media, and video games as facilitators of moral disengagement.
Background
Morals are standards of behavior that are generally considered acceptable, ethical, and right. While different societies can have different moral standards, how these standards are defined has some commonalities. Moral behaviors are those that facilitate living in community with others by ensuring that one person does not unfairly benefit in some way at the expense of another and that make sure that those who are weaker in some way are protected. Behaving in a moral way often means considering how someone else might be disadvantaged or hurt by one’s behavior and not acting in that way even if it would be personally beneficial. For example, the moral thing to do when one finds a wallet is to return it to the owner without taking anything, even though it would benefit one personally to keep the money it contains.
Morals are defined in a number of ways. Historically, many moral standards were tied to religious beliefs. In some cases, what began as religious guidelines for morality were expanded to the secular world and became part of how nations and communities expected their citizens to act. In contemporary times, moral standards are also adopted by non-religious and non-governmental entities. For example, schools will have moral standards governing cheating and bullying, while businesses will expect moral behavior from employees such as not abusing breaks and paid time off or not ignoring a coworker’s inappropriate behavior.
Disengagement refers to the process of disconnecting from something. A person who is disengaged detaches or withdraws from participation in a behavior or activity. In the case of moral disengagement, the person or persons move away from the standards of moral and ethical behavior that are customary and expected for their society.
Canadian-American social psychologist Albert Bandura (1925—) is credited with developing much of the contemporary understanding of the moral disengagement process. Bandura is well-known for his experiments in cognitive psychology, including the Bobo doll experiments that used an inflatable punching dummy to determine how children imitate aggressive behavior. His theories and writing on moral disengagement established the baseline from which contemporary researchers into moral disengagement work.
Overview
According to Bandura, the four main categories of moral disengagement are moral justification, diffusing responsibility, dismissing the consequences, and dehumanizing the victim. Someone who is morally disengaged will use justifications from one or more of these categories to excuse their behavior.
Moral justification refers to using some aspect of morality to excuse or explain immoral behavior. People convince themselves that their bad behavior is actually beneficial to others in some way. For example, a student might sell term papers and justify this by saying they are helping others get better grades and get into a better college. This approach disregards the way these actions cheat the person who buys the paper from truly learning the topic, disadvantages those who do the work themselves, and possibly cheats someone more deserving from getting a place in college.
Diffusing responsibility places the blame for the person’s immoral actions on someone else. This other person is usually an authority figure who can punish or otherwise hurt the person if they do not commit the immoral act. “I was just following orders” has been used as justification for many war crimes and much corporate misconduct. In this case, the person’s failure to act morally allows them to avoid consequences at the expense of others.
Dismissing the consequences is a way of excusing the immoral actions as not being a big deal. The person acts as if their actions have no real consequences, or as if those consequences do not really hurt anyone. Insurance fraud, when a person places a false or inflated claim for insurance benefits, is one example of this type of moral disengagement.
The final strategy in moral disengagement is dehumanizing the victim. This form of behavior puts the blame for the immoral behavior on the other person by claiming the victim did something to cause it. Claiming that the victim of sexual assault “had it coming” because they were dressed or acting a certain way is an example of this strategy.
Moral disengagement often happens with people who have some form of emotional or psychological problem, such as narcissism (self-love), a sense of personal entitlement, sadism or the desire to hurt others, or psychopathy. However, otherwise normal people can be tempted to moral disengagement in certain circumstances, and many people engage in some form of this disengagement in more isolated circumstances. For example, a person who discovers they have received too much change from a store may justify not returning it by saying the store will not notice or their prices are too high anyway, or a person who is angry with someone may justify hurting their reputation by saying they had it coming.
Experts offer several explanations for why people behave in morally disengaged ways. The influences of society, such as seeing people get away with immoral behavior, is a factor in some cases. This is often at the root of mass displays of moral disengagement such as rioting and looting. Others think influences such as violent video games that allow a person to engage in morally disengaged behavior without real consequences play a role as well. Another factor can be circumstances; this is at play during times of war when the usual prohibitions against killing are set aside.
Bibliography
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Johnston, Joni E. “Bad to the Bone.” Psychology Today, 8 Oct. 2018, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-human-equation/201810/bad-the-bone. Accessed 26 Apr. 2019.
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