Been reading this article about moral disengagement for my ethics course -- a topic I touched on when I was doing a paper on cyberbullying last term. A few interesting concepts caught my attention. Albert Bandura discusses this topic a lot, and it's really interesting stuff. /1

A few of the terms are explicitly applicable to fanpol (alongside their equivalents in RWA), so I figured I'd list them here. The first is euphemistic labeling. The term refers to the 'use of language to reshape ... thought patterns & associated emotions ... to cognitively /2

disguise the harmfulness of culpable activities or bestow a respectable status on them.' The second is advantageous comparison, which is when 'unethical behaviors are compared w/ even more harmful conduct, this making the original behavior appear acceptable.' The next are /3

displacement and diffusion of responsibility. The former 'displaces responsibility for their actions into an authority figure, negating any personal accountability for the unfavorable act' & the latter refers more to group behavior, wherein 'no ... member feels personally /4

liable for the collective's destructive behavior.' The last three are disregarding/distorting the consequences, dehumanization & attribution of blame. This all ties into the us-vs-them mentality & is largely self-explanatory. This all falls under the purview of moral /5

justification, whereupon 'individuals reconstrue harm to others in ways that make it appear morally justifiable.' Moral disengagement has been seen to play a role in cyberbullying & has been tied to the perception of anonymity & freedom from consequences. Neither of these /6

things is true, however. No one is really anonymous & consequences always find their way back, though they may not be in the form you expect. How to deal w/ this problem remains in conflict. Expressing empathy is the ideal, letting these individuals know that those they attack /7

are not actually 'bad' people. However, enabling abusive or otherwise harmful behavior is also a problem. It's a moral/ethical grey zone that I've been struggling with. I genuinely want to help, but it's a seemingly impossible uphill battle wherein there is either irrational /8

antagonism fueled by faulty, circular logic, or simply an utter lack of understanding (which is what truly boggles me). In any case, as upsetting as it is, the fact that it follows established patterns means that we're on our way to figuring out how to help break the cycle. /9

If you want to read the article, it populates on Google Scholar.

Source: Detert, J. R., Treviño, L. K., & Sweitzer, V. L. (2008). Moral disengagement in ethical decision making: a study of antecedents and outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), 374.

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