Mechanisms Of Moral Disengagement Research Articles

Reconceptualizing selective moral disengagement mechanisms as continuums of moral influence: a theoretical expansion

Abstract Mass communication researchers have applied Bandura’s selective moral disengagement (SMD) concept in diverse contexts to explain audiences’ acceptance of moral violations and reduced condemnation. Recent updates to moral psychology—specifically the application of social intuitionist theories—challenge SMD’s underlying assumptions, necessitating a reconceptualization. In this article, we incorporate modern social intuitionist theories of moral judgment into SMD’s underlying assumptions. We further propose a two-stage moral signal detection process consistent with current decision-making theory in order to explain how SMD reflects a modulation of both moral condemnation and moral commendation. Building on these extensions, we reconceptualize SMD’s eight original mechanisms as expanded continuums of moral influence applicable to diverse forms of moral perceptions and moral judgments. This reconceptualization of SMD removes unnecessary boundary conditions, improves the internal consistency of the theory, and can begin to resolve scholarly disagreements. We conclude the article by providing concrete suggestions for future empirical research.

MAPEANDO PESQUISAS NACIONAIS SOBRE DESENGAJAMENTO MORAL NA PERSPECTIVA DA TEORIA SOCIAL COGNITIVA

Moral Disengagement consists in the detachment of moral standards and self-sanctions for committing antisocial and harmful actions to others, without self-condemnation or changes in self-esteem. Based on this concept, it was aimed to obtain a mapping of what was produced on the topic in the Graduate Programs of Brazilian universities over the last ten years (2013-2023). A systematic review was carried out, with a quantitative survey of the studies and their qualitative analysis. The descriptor “moral disengagement” was used to search for theses and dissertations in the CAPES Catalog of Theses and Dissertations, between December 2022 and April 2023. The works were selected, followed by their quantitative and qualitative analysis. Five Doctoral dissertations and 12 Master’s theses were analyzed, defended in ten universities (nine public and one private), mainly from the Southeast and Northeast regions, with emphasis on the State University of Campinas and the Federal University of Maranhão. Studies in the areas of Psychology, Education, Teaching, Administration, Public Security and Scientific and Technological Policy stand out. Data shows more qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and correlational publications. The main topics found were: education, violence, aggression, work, technology. The most cited Moral Disengagement mechanisms were Moral Justification and Victim Blaming. The contributions in the area of Education were related to social aggression, bullying, behavior of helping victims, violence in the school context, racial prejudice in football, helping students and teachers in initial and continuing training to identify, understand, reflect and promote changes in the cognitive mechanisms used in Moral Disengagement.

Association between Callous-Unemotional Traits, Empathy, and Moral Disengagement Mechanisms in Juvenile Offenders

There are few studies that explore the association between cognitive and affective factors according to gender and types of crime in juvenile offenders. This study analyzed the association between callous-unemotional traits, empathy, and moral disengagement mechanisms according to gender differences and criminal typology in 149 adolescents (M = 17.72 years, SD = 1.34) prosecuted by the Criminal Responsibility System (SRPA) and placed in custodial measures. The 81.2% were males and 18.8% were females. This was a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional, comparative-correlational study. The Scale of Moral Disengagement Mechanisms, the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index were used. It was found that males presented higher scores in the mechanisms of moral disengagement and uncaring. Females presented higher scores in total empathy and empathic concern. Adolescents with felonies had higher scores on attribution of blame. Moral disengagement mechanisms correlated positively with callous-unemotional traits and personal distress. Empathic concern and perspective taking correlated negatively with moral disengagement. In adolescents with history of felonies, moral disengagement presented stronger associations with callous-unemotional traits. In non-violent offenses, the strongest associations were with uncaring, and in trespassing they were with personal distress. Results are discussed according to empirical evidence and implications for intervention.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Factorial Invariance of the Mechanisms of the Moral Disengagement Scale

The objective of this paper was to analyze the factorial structure, psychometric characteristics, and factorial invariance by sex, age, and city of the Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement Scale in young university students. A total of 1,431 young people between the ages of 18 and 30 (M = 20.86, SD = 3.64) from two Colombian cities participated in the study. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test four hypothesized models. The CFA confirmed a first-order factor structure grouping the eight mechanisms of moral disengagement (Model 4), which explained 54.17% of the total variance. The final model obtained a good fit, χ2 = 12.514, RMSEA = .010, TLI = .999, AGFI = .993, CFI = 1.00, ECVI = .044, CMIN/df = 1.138. Factorial invariance by sex, age and city of the final proposed model was confirmed. Moral disengagement mechanisms were negatively correlated with empathy and prosocial tendencies. It is concluded that this scale is valid and reliable to assess moral disengagement in Colombian youth.

Moral disengagement in the media discourses on meat and dairy production systems

Meat and dairy production and consumption are the subject of ongoing public debates that touch on various sustainability issues such as biodiversity loss, climate change, animal welfare, and social and health aspects. Despite extensive discussions specifically relating to the environmental impacts of livestock farming in conjunction with animal welfare aspects, there have been no substantial changes in production or consumption patterns. Moreover, the focus of extant research is usually on consumers' responses to public concerns around livestock production. In this study, we shed light on the discrepancy between the normative discourse and action of relevant value chain actors with the help of Bandura's theory of moral disengagement, which allows us to identify mechanisms that contribute to the perpetuation of unsustainable production and consumption patterns. In particular, we focus on the shifting of responsibility between actors in the normatively charged field of sustainable livestock production. We collected 109 media interviews on meat and dairy production and consumption from the years 2020–2022, including interviews with actors from agriculture, processing industries, and food retail. Using qualitative content analysis, we investigated the role of moral disengagement in the media discourse on meat and dairy production and explored differences between actors in terms of moral disengagement. We found that shifting of responsibility shows a quasi-circular dynamic of being shifted from all actors to all, in our case most frequently to consumers, politics, and (diffuse) economic forces. In addition, our analysis showed the use of social justifications, beneficial comparisons, and euphemistic labelling to be common mechanisms of moral disengagement, constituting a collective problem within agri-food systems.

Moral Disengagement in Adolescent Offenders: Its Relationship with Antisocial Behavior and Its Presence in Offenders of the Law and School Norms.

This study focuses on understanding the relationship between moral disengagement mechanisms in adolescents who engage in law-breaking activities and those who violate school norms. To do so, we administered the Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement Scale (MMDS), which evaluates moral justification, euphemistic labeling, advantageous comparison, deflection of responsibility, diffusion of responsibility, distortion of consequences, dehumanization, and attribution of blame, to 366 adolescents (60.1% males (n = 220) and 39.9% females (n = 146)). Our results confirmed the hypothesis that law-breaking adolescents presented a higher degree of moral disengagement than those adolescents who violate school norms. Additionally, we found that adolescents who violated school norms displayed significantly higher levels of dehumanization than the controls, and law-breaking adolescents obtained the highest score in this domain. Our findings allow us to suggest that the presence of the dehumanization mechanism in adolescents who violate school norms could be used as an early indicator of the emergence of antisocial behaviors, since this was the only component of moral disengagement that significantly differentiated this group from the controls in the study.

The role of gender and sexism in the moral disengagement mechanisms of technology-facilitated sexual violence

Technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) encompasses various harmful online behaviors, such as online gender-based hate speech, online gender-based violence, digital sexual harassment, image-based sexual abuse, and online sexual coercion. This study aimed to examine how moral disengagement varies based on the type of TFSV, and the factors influencing moral disengagement in TFSV situations. Specifically, the impact of participant gender, participant sexist beliefs, and victim–perpetrator gender was assessed. A total of 2950 respondents (70.3% women) between the ages of 16 and 79 (M = 26.33, SD = 10.09) participated in a vignette study in which the variables of interest (TFSV type, victim-perpetrator gender) were manipulated. The findings revealed that moral disengagement levels varied across different types of TFSV, with higher levels observed in cases of online gender-based hate speech, followed by online gender-based violence, digital sexual harassment, image-based sexual abuse, and online sexual coercion. Moreover, the results indicated that sexist beliefs, participant gender (i.e., being a man), and situations involving a woman perpetrator and a man victim were associated with greater moral disengagement. Additionally, it was found that sexist beliefs play a more significant role in moral disengagement for women than for men. This information, which emphasizes the role of gender socialization and sexist beliefs in the justification and normalization of this type of violence, is important for the development of prevention programs.

Understanding the association between moral disengagement and ethnic victimization: roles of bystanders in class

ABSTRACT The current study examined whether bystander behaviours in class were associated with being perpetrators of ethnic victimization and whether they moderated the association between disengagement from morality and perpetrating ethnic-based victimization. The sample included 1065 adolescents residing in Sweden (M age  = 13.12, SD=.42; 55% males) from the first wave of a three-year longitudinal study. Students completed self-report measures. The results showed that adolescents with high levels of moral disengagement had greater likelihood of engagement in ethnic victimization. At the classroom level, lower levels of defending intentions and higher levels of reinforcing behaviours were related to higher likelihood of engagement in ethnic victimization. None of the cross-level interactions between moral disengagement and classroom-level bystander behaviours were statistically significant. Together, these findings suggest that intervention programmes designed to reduce bias-based hostile behaviours in schools may focus on promoting defending behaviours in class. However, the findings also highlight that targeting social context (or at least bystanders in class) might not be sufficient by itself to intervene with morally disengaged adolescents’ involvement in ethnic victimization. Intervention efforts may also benefit from including specific components targeting moral disengagement mechanisms.

Do individualizing moral foundations protect from higher moral disengagement in imprisoned men and women?

We aimed to analyze whether the individualizing moral foundations play a protective role against moral disengagement in a sample of 367 women and men in prison, and whether, in addition, moral foundations promote the intention to change the behaviors that led them to prison. Controlling for gender differences, we found support for the hypothesized connection between the individualizing moral foundations, as proposed by the Moral Foundations Theory (i.e., care and fairness), and the vast majority of moral disengagement mechanisms, especially with the two cruelest (attribution of blame and dehumanization). Regarding the intention to change the immoral behavior that brought our participants into prison, we found that, as hypothesized, the individualizing moral foundations positively and victim locus category negatively showed significant predictive power. This particular result could be especially relevant to improve the re-education interventions formulated for people in prison.

Injustice Promotes Unethical Behavior Through Moral Disengagement

People are aversive to injustice. Yet how injustice experiences influence people’s ethic violation is understudied. Across three studies, we found that injustice increases unethical behavior and that moral disengagement is an underlying driver of this effect. By measuring (Study 1) and manipulating injustice (Study 2), two studies demonstrated that moral disengagement mediated the association between injustice and unethical behavior. Consistent with the moral disengagement mechanism, experimentally lowering participants’ moral disengagement eliminated the effect of injustice on unethical behavior (Study 3). These findings add to the literature on injustice as well as unethical behavior and have important implications.

Pedestrian moral disengagement scale towards sustainable urban planning

This study aimed to address Goal 3.5: Reduce deaths and injuries caused by traffic accidents of the United Nations SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being (United Nations, 2023) by examining the conduct of Peruvian pedestrians and its involvement in traffic accidents. We considered the Lima Metropolitan Area as the target population because it represents the third largest part of Peru, with 8,894,412 inhabitants (Instituto Nacional de Estadistica e Informatica, 2015). We developed and validated a pedestrian moral disengagement scale that provides relevant information about the justifications concerned when pedestrians commit transport infractions, which those in charge of transport management can use to make decisions regarding the design and planning of the infrastructure. The study was conducted in two phases. First, a questionnaire was developed with a 100–100-pedestrian sample in a two-stage brainstorming process validated by transport academic experts and psychologists. Second, a clustered instance of two stages of 405 pedestrians from Metropolitan Lima was analysed by applying exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results showed that the data collected were not parametric; Spearman’s correlation index validated the correlation between the items on the scale, and polychoric correlational analysis confirmed an underlying metrical variable; and the model exhibited a p-value of less than 0.001, a chi-square of 173 with 59 degrees of freedom, a root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) of 0.0692, a comparative fit index (CFI) of o.937, a Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) of 0.917, and a standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) of 0.0457. The main conclusion was that the adjustment of the model was sufficient, considering the results obtained within the theoretical model proposed by Albert Bandura (1986) and within the phases of reliability and validation confirming the representation of the eight mechanisms of pedestrian moral disengagement in Metropolitan Lima through the 13 identified items. Furthermore, a chi-square analysis found that residents and commuters in the El Agustino district enjoyed holding on to moving vehicles while skating or cycling (item P1.10), with an asymptotic significance of 0.018. Similarly, residents and travellers in the Cieneguilla district were likely to ignore traffic lights and police instructions (item P1.13), with an asymptotic significance of 0.009. By comprehensively analysing district variables and considering each district's unique challenges and needs, urban planners and those in charge of transport management can develop more effective solutions that improve pedestrian safety, accessibility, and urban mobility in developing countries.

Cheques or dating scams? Online fraud themes in hip-hop songs across popular music apps

How do hip-hop songs produced from 2017 to 2023 depict and rationalize online fraud? This study examines the depiction of online fraudsters in thirty-three Nigerian hip-hop songs on nine popular streaming platforms such as Spotify, Deezer, iTunes, SoundCloud, Apple Music, and YouTube. Using a directed approach to qualitative content analysis, we coded lyrics based on the moral disengagement mechanism and core themes derived from existing literature. Our findings shed light on how songs (a) justify the fraudulent actions of online fraudsters, (b) blame and dehumanize victims of online romance fraud, (c) glamorize online fraud, and (d) provide insights into prevailing attitudes, indigenous linguistics, and worldviews regarding cybercrime victimization. Specifically, our analysis shows the presence of moral disengagement mechanisms, including "dehumanization," “minimizing own agency,” and "displacement of responsibility." Moreover, we identify core contextual themes pertinent to online fraud in the Nigerian context: (a) "cyber spiritualism" and (b) "the North-South divide." This research underscores the global influence of musicians whose songs are easily accessible on diverse music platforms in trivializing the plight of online fraud victims. We argue that these artists' persuasive messages not only downplay but also satirize the victims' predicaments, thus contributing to the cultural worldviews and dimensions of online fraud. We conclude by underscoring these songs' capacity to actualize, reshape, and actively engage with the narratives of glamorization, justification, spiritualism, colonial legacies, gender dynamics, and societal implications. We recommend that future research endeavors explore non-conventional data sources adept at capturing the intricate fabric of cultural attitudes and dynamics.

The Role of Moral Disengagement in the Relationships between Ethical Ideology and Unethical Pro-Organizational Behaviour

There is growing research by a group of researcher on unethical pro-organisation behaviour (UPB) especially after the misconduct of carbon emission by Volkswagen, the researchers have trying to understand why, how and when employees would conduct UPB by using various theories (Mishra et al., 2021) including moral disengagement theory (Mishra et al., 2021). Drawing from moral disengagement theory (Bandura, 1990) we argue that moral disengagement mechanism mediates the relationships between ethical ideology and UPB. As the literature of moral disengagement in unethical behaviour and UPB heavily tested and rely on moral disengagement as unidimensional construct, so less is known which mechanisms of moral disengagement influence employees behaviour (Ogunfowora et al., 2021). So, this paper will examine how idealist and relativist adopting moral disengagement mechanisms in justifying their immoral act of UPB. The study is a cross sectional study which the data was collected through paper and pencil survey. A total of 387 responses were collected from private sectors employees in Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The respondents received RM10 KFC voucher as a token. The data quality measures were used by including attention check questions and marker variable (Moore et al., 2021). All the responses were measured using 7-likert scale, where 1 – strongly disagree and 7-strongly agree. Employees ethical ideology was measured using 20 items by (Forsyth, 1980), moral disengagement was measured using 32 items by (Bandura, 1990), and UPB was measure using 6 items by (Umphress et al., 2010), The analysis was conducted using SPSS Version 27, and the mediation analysis was tested using PROCESS. Keywords: Unethical pro-organizational behaviour, moral disengagement, ethical ideology

The effect of relative deprivation on aggressive behavior of college students: a moderated mediation model of belief in a just world and moral disengagement

BackgroundPrevious research found that college students have exhibited a group of concern, and aggressive behavior occurs from time to time in daily life. In order to investigate the effect of relative deprivation on aggressive behavior of college students, this study conducted a moderated mediation model to examine the relationship between relative deprivation, aggressive behavior, belief in a just world, and moral disengagement.Methods1169 college students(71.7% female; mean age = 19.41, SD = 1.3, range = 17-30years) participated in and completed measures of Relative Deprivation Questionnaire, Belief in a Just World Scale, Moral disengagement Scale and Aggression Questionnaire. The data were analyzed by using a moderated mediation model with SPSS and Process 3.1 macro.ResultsThe results revealed that: (1) Relative deprivation significantly positively predicted college students’ aggressive behavior controlling for gender, grade, and age (B = 0.45, p＜0.001). (2) Belief in a just world played mediating role in relative deprivation and aggressive behavior(indirect effect = 0.04, 95%CI = [0.002,0.007], accounting for 9% of the total effect). (3) The moderated mediator model test showed that moral disengagement regulates the first half of the mediator effect path (B = 0.71, p < 0.01).ConclusionThe present study analyzed the moral disengagement mechanisms deeply and shed light on how to decrease the aggressive behavior of college students.

A cross-sectional study of gender role adherence, moral disengagement mechanisms and online vulnerability in adolescents

The wide availability of electronic devices accessible to teenagers has enabled them to use the internet to communicate, share, and obtain information. However, the use of the internet and social media has also increased the risk of vulnerability, exposing people, particularly adolescents, to several risks. We collected data from a sample of 366 adolescents (186 females and 180 males) aged 14–20 years (mean age = 17 ± 1.33 years) to investigate the mediating role of moral disengagement (MD) mechanisms in the relationship between gender and online vulnerability. Data were collected in both the inner-city and suburban high schools of Rome (Italy) using the Qualtrics Platform Online. The participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Online Vulnerability Scale, and the Civic Moral Disengagement Scale. All participants declared that they accessed and used the internet frequently. Using SPSS, the data were checked for outliers, common method bias, and normal distribution; then, correlation and mediation analyses were performed. Based on the correlation results, a mediation analysis was performed using only the displacement of responsibility as a mediator of the gender-online vulnerability link. Age was entered in the mediation model as a covariate. The results showed that girls were more vulnerable online than boys, who in turn used more moral disengagement mechanisms. In addition, moral displacement showed a positive indirect effect on the relationship between gender and online vulnerability. This means that when including the moral displacement in the mediation model boys appeared more exposed to online vulnerability as they probably adopted more immoral behaviors. These results could help to develop interventions to sensitize adolescents on both taking responsibilities for their actions on the Internet. Limitations and future research directions are briefly discussed.

Understanding how individuals engage in match-fixing: the role of moral disengagement

ABSTRACT Research question This study aims to investigate the role of moral disengagement in individuals’ decisions to consent to match-fixing, either alone or in concert with money, other inducements, and threats or pressure. Drawing on the moral (dis)comfort component of an individual's rational-choice cost–benefit assessment, we examine the potential of moral disengagement as an explanatory mechanism. Research methods Data were obtained through an online questionnaire. The analysis was based on an international sample of 383 current and former athletes, coaches, referees, and board members who have reported having been approached for match-fixing in the past. The empirical evaluation employed descriptive statistics and (multiple) binary logistic regression models, which were performed using SPSS 24 software. Results and Findings Results indicate that a higher propensity to morally disengage can be associated with increased odds of consenting to match-fixing. These results suggest that individuals approached with a match-fixing proposal tend to employ self-defensive mechanisms to rationalise their decision to engage in match-fixing. Furthermore, the use of threats or pressure was found to have a significant impact on the decision to participate in match-fixing, both alone and in concert with (monetary) inducements and moral disengagement. While a positive significant interaction effect was observed between moral disengagement and the offer of (monetary) inducements, no significant interaction effect was noted between moral disengagement and threats or pressure. Implications This study offers novel individual-level explanations for match-fixing. Enriching the dominant rational-choice paradigm, this study emphasises the importance of detecting and counteracting moral disengagement mechanisms in match-fixing prevention initiatives.

A social cognitive perspective of educators’ moral agency

ABSTRACT By and large, teachers approach their work with the utmost care for students’ intellectual, social, and emotional well-being. But even those who hold themselves to high moral standards can sometimes act in ways that harm others when they disengage self-sanctions like guilt or self-criticism. These mechanisms of moral disengagement include (1) portraying harmful acts as beneficial, (2) obscuring one’s own role in harm, (3) minimizing the harmful effects of one’s actions, and (4) viewing victims as less-than-human or deserving of blame. Because moral self-sanctions can be both disengaged and reengaged, we examine how these mechanisms operate in educators’ social systems and point to practices that may promote their moral engagement. We end our piece with a call for interventions that disrupt disengagement and promote moral self-efficacy.

Not seeing the (moral) forest for the trees? How task complexity and employees’ expertise affect moral disengagement with discriminatory data analytics recommendations

Data analytics provides versatile decision support to help employees tackle the rising complexity of today’s business decisions. Notwithstanding the benefits of these systems, research has shown their potential for provoking discriminatory decisions. While technical causes have been studied, the human side has been mostly neglected, albeit employees mostly still need to decide to turn analytics recommendations into actions. Drawing upon theories of technology dominance and of moral disengagement, we investigate how task complexity and employees’ expertise affect the approval of discriminatory data analytics recommendations. Through two online experiments, we confirm the important role of advantageous comparison, displacement of responsibility, and dehumanization, as the cognitive moral disengagement mechanisms that facilitate such approvals. While task complexity generally enhances these mechanisms, expertise retains a critical role in analytics-supported decision-making processes. Importantly, we find that task complexity’s effects on users’ dehumanization vary: more data subjects increase dehumanization, whereas richer information on subjects has the opposite effect. By identifying the cognitive mechanisms that facilitate approvals of discriminatory data analytics recommendations, this study contributes toward designing tools, methods, and practices that combat unethical consequences of using these systems.

Victimization Perceived and Experienced by Teens in an Abusive Dating Relationship: The Need to Tear down Social Myths.

The phenomenon of adolescent dating violence is a social health problem that affects thousands of people in different contexts and parts of the world. To date, much of the work that has focused on analysing this phenomenon has tended to study it from the perspective of victimized adolescent girls, considering that gender violence predominates in violent pair relationships. Nonetheless, there is a growing body of evidence that the victimization of adolescent boys is a reality. Thus, mutual violence between boys and girls is increasingly prevalent. Given this context, the present study's objective was to analyse and compare the victimization profile of a sample of female and male adolescents, taking into account the variables most commonly associated with victimization in these abusive relationships (perceived violence suffered, perceived severity, sexism, and moral disengagement). With this objective, different instruments were administered (CUVINO, Scale of Detection of Sexism Adolescents (DSA), and Mechanism of Moral Disengagement Scale (MMDS)). Data analysis based on the construction of a multiple linear regression model confirmed that the boys and girls in the sample revealed having suffered violence from their partners to a different degree. It is evident that the victimization profile of the two sexes is different. Thus, boys show less perception of severity, more sexism, and greater use of certain moral disengagement mechanisms than girls. These results reveal the need to tear down social myths and construct prevention programs that take into account different victimization profiles.

Measuring empathy online and moral disengagement in cyberbullying.

This investigation intends to explore how adolescents report empathy in online contexts and moral disengagement in cyberbullying incidents, and how these two constructs are related. To accomplish this goal, three studies were conducted considering the need to develop new instruments to uncover this new approach of measuring empathy and moral disengagement. In the first study, we adapted the Portuguese version of the Empathy Quotient-short form to online contexts, which resulted in the Empathy Quotient in Virtual Contexts (EQVC). We also developed the Process Moral Disengagement in Cyberbullying Inventory (PMDCI), in order to assess moral disengagement in these specific situations. In the second study we conducted exploratory factor analyses (N = 234) of these instruments. Finally, in the third study, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses (N = 345) of both instruments. These results showed how adolescents reported empathy in online contexts and moral disengagement in cyberbullying incidents. Specifically, empathy revealed a bi-dimensional structure including difficulty and self-efficacy in empathizing (Cronbach's α = 0.44, 0.83, respectively), whereas process moral disengagement revealed four unidimensional questionnaires including locus of behavior, agency, outcome, and recipient (Cronbach's α = 0.76, 0.65, 0.77, 0.69, respectively). Furthermore, a correlational analysis was also performed of both constructs, and we also considered the variable sex. Results showed that difficulty in empathizing was negatively associated with sex (with girls revealing more difficulty than boys) and all moral disengagement mechanisms except for behavior. Moral disengagement was positively correlated with sex, suggesting boys morally disengaged more from cyberbullying. The instruments provided new insights on how empathy and moral disengagement can be specific to online contexts and cyberbullying situations, and how they can be used in educational programs to promote empathy and gain insight on moral disengagement within this phenomenon.