Albert Bandura’s Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement* Antidotes are Compassion and Humanization
Type	Definition	Principles/Methods	Example
Behavioral
Moral, social,       economic       justification	Sanctify harmful practices by investing them with honorable purpose	Ends justify the means	People have the freedom to buy or not buy this harmful product thus preserving the free market
Euphemistic
Changes in language are used to detach and depersonalize harms	Cloak detrimental activities in misleading language to reduce perception of harm	Use jargon from respectable sources, use the agentless passive voice, use sanitized and convoluted language	Former personnel containment device is used instead of “body bag”
Advantageous Comparison
“How the self and others view human behavior is colored by what it is compared against”	Use exonerating comparisons	Position viewpoint as the lesser of two evils or as uplifting	Gun lobby frames even the most sensible restrictions as a step toward banning guns altogether and violating the second amendment
Dealing with Agency
Displacement of responsibility	Obscure or minimize one’s role in causing harm	Obedience to authority; if in authority, stay uninformed	I only did what I was told to do—Nazi Concentration Camp Commandant
Diffusion of responsibility	Harm done by a group is attributed to others in the group	“Collective crimes incriminate no one”--Napoleon	Division of labor so that no one person is responsible for the cumulative harm
Dealing with Effects
Disregard, distortion and denial of harm	Avoiding or minimizing the harm caused	Dispute, minimize, undercut credibility of witnesses and those harmed	Ban journalists or photographers so the harm is not recorded
Moral disengagement by observers	Respond resignedly to witnessing wrongdoing	Promote turning a blind eye	Make whistle-blowers pay a heavy social and emotional price
Dealing with Victims
Dehumanization	Justify treatment of others by stripping them of humanity	No longer view victims as people with feelings, hopes and concerns	Call immigrants “illegals”.
Attributing blame	Blame victims for bringing harm on themselves or blame circumstances	Make aggressive acts appear self-righteous	If he/she took care of themselves, they wouldn’t be sick
Related Phenomena
Transformation through progressive moral disengagement	“Progressive disengagement of self-censure for acts of cruelty”	Self-reproof diminishes with repeated acts	Ordinary youth become cruel boy soldiers
Moral disengagement at the social systems level	Collective moral disengagement	Organization helps players neutralize moral implications of acts	Leading tobacco company CEO’s relying on internal evidence that “nicotine is not addictive”
Moral disengagement and self-deception	Keep one’s self willfully misinformed	Don’t find out what you don’t want to know	Keep adverse effects of actions remote and out of sight

*Bandura, A. (2016). Moral disengagement: How people do harm and live with themselves. NY: Worth Publishing.