Process Of Moral Disengagement Research Articles

Exploring online deviant behaviour: a study on the impact of internet anonymity on tourists’ exaggerated comments

ABSTRACT The research objectives of this paper are to analyze the role of internet anonymity in customers’ publication of exaggerated online reviews, explore the potential processes of moral disengagement, and study possible moderating and mediating factors. To achieve these objectives, this study conducts a questionnaire survey among 530 internet users and perform regression analysis to test the research model. This test results reveal that internet anonymity has a positive impact on exaggerated online reviews through two moral disengagement mechanisms: advantageous comparison and distorting consequences. Moral identity not only negatively moderates the effect of internet anonymity on advantageous comparison and distorting consequences but also negatively moderates the mediating role of advantageous comparison and distorting consequences between internet anonymity and exaggerated online reviews. This research enriches the findings in the field of fake reviews and value co-destruction in the tourism sector and offers insights for relevant regulatory agencies to improve the online environment.

Ahlaki Uzaklaşmadan Uzaklaşmak: Bireysel Farklılıklar ve Müdahale Programlarına İlişkin Bir Derleme

It is an intriguing question of how people can reduce stress in which situations where internal moral standards are violated. Addressing this question, moral disengagement theory has been proposed to explain different cognitive mechanisms which ease people into engaging or witnessing moral transgressions. Several findings showed that moral disengagement tendencies might be explained by individual differences as well as contextual factors. Beyond showing the correlations between moral disengagement processes and individual differences and contextual factors, it is also valuable to investigate if there is an effective way to intervene in moral disengagement. This review article addresses the previously shown evidence regarding individual differences, contextual factors, and interventions, which in turn aim to enrich our understanding of the underlying psychological mechanisms to reduce unethical behaviors. Taken together, Honesty-Modesty, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Psychopathy, and Machiavellianism were found to be individual differences associated with moral disengagement. Additionally, less research yielded that attachment styles, political attitudes, moral identity, and moral emotions might be important to experience moral disengagement. Although several studies showed that individual differences are related to being more prone to moral disengagement, these studies had rarely been considered in intervention programs aiming to reduce immoral behaviors. Programs that have been designed to reduce moral disengagement overlook the long-term effects. Additionally, interventions often focus on the work environment and adolescence. In the future, interventions that include longitudinal designs considering the role of individual differences and different contexts might contribute to the relevant literature.

Machiavellianism and affective commitment as predictors of unethical pro-organization behavior: exploring the moderating role of moral disengagement

PurposeA growing number of organizational scandals, including Apple slowing old devices to increase the sales of new ones, and research on unethical pro-organization behaviors (UPBs) have heightened the need to explore the phenomenon. Extending the current understanding, the study's major purpose is to investigate individual-level factors that may shape their willingness to engage in UPBs. It also inquires whether moral disengagement processes influence this association.Design/methodology/approachAfter testing the reliability and validity of the latent constructs and ensuring common method bias did not contaminate the data, the study used the PLS-SEM approach to analyze the primary data collected from 408 full-time Pakistani employees.FindingsResults add to the current understanding by revealing that individual-level dark factor Machiavellianism (MACH) significantly influences employees' willingness to engage in UPBs. Accordingly, affective commitment is another individual-level factor that encourages employees to be a part of UPBs. Lastly, results unveil that employees with a higher moral disengagement are more prone to engage in UPBs.Research limitations/implicationsThe study measured employees' willingness or intentions to engage in UPBs, not their actual involvement.Practical implicationsResults clarify to the top management that individuals high on MACH, affective commitment and moral disengagement are more prone to be involved in UPBs.Originality/valueThis study is among the preliminary ones that assess the direct associations between MACH, affective commitment, and UPBs, especially in the Pakistani context. Moreover, exploring the moderating role of moral disengagement between the above associations is also an under-researched phenomenon.

Does Psychological Contract Violation Change the Original Intention of Eco-Tourists to Participate in Scenic Value Co-Creation?

Eco-tourists are the practitioners of promoting the harmonious development of humans and nature, and have a very important significance for the scenic spots and sustainable development of scenic areas. However, external factors often interfere with the eco-tourists’ original intention, which not only affect the tourist experience, but also bring a negative influence to the scenic spots, and even the destinations where they are located. Identifying the triggering factors and processes that influence eco-tourists’ participation in scenic value co-creation will lay a solid foundation for the effective governance of scenic areas. This paper systematically explores whether, how and when psychological contract violations significantly affect the eco-tourists’ participation in scenic value co-creation from the perspective of psychological contract violations. The data are collected from 556 eco-tourists’ questionnaires from the Yellow River Estuary Ecotourism Zone of Dongying City, Shandong Province, China. Through a hierarchical regression analysis and further validated by the Bootstrap method, the study finds the following: First, eco-tourists’ psychological contract violation has a significant negative effect on their participation in value co-creation. Second, moral disengagement plays a mediating role in the relationship between psychological contract violation and value co-creation behavior. Third, moral disengagement acts on value co-creation. The process of moral disengagement on value co-creation behavior is influenced by the level of expertise. The negative effect of moral disengagement on value co-creation decreases as the level of expertise increases. The findings of this paper not only expand the antecedents of tourists’ participation and the path of psychological contract violation in value co-creation, but also have important practical implications for promoting eco-tourists’ participation in value co-creation as well as reducing, preventing and identifying psychological contract violation in ecotourism scenic spots.

The Role of Morality and Religiosity in Ethnic and Homophobic Prejudice Among Teachers

The role of moral disengagement strategies and religiosity related to ethnic and homophobic prejudice were investigated in a sample of 550 Italian secondary school teachers (76.4% female, age range: 20–70; M = 46.18) who completed the teachers’ attitudes towards the representation of homosexuality in film and television scale; the Italian version of the moral disengagement scale; the subtle and blatant prejudice scales; and three items to evaluate their religiosity. Evidence suggests that moral disengagement processes matter for subtle ethnic prejudice, but not for blatant ethnic prejudice or homophobic prejudice. Results based on a structural equation model show that teachers who are more prone to use moral disengagement mechanisms have higher levels of subtle ethnic prejudice, while teachers who are older and more religious have higher levels of homophobic prejudice. The results of a multiple group structural equation model showed that high versus low levels of religiosity among teachers did not moderate the strength of these associations. Theoretical and educational implications are discussed.

How Organizations Lose Their Way

Unethical behavior in organizations has garnered more and more attention in the last decades but most of the scholarly work has used a static approach relying on methodological individualism and a mechanistic worldview when studying this topic. The process of moral disengagement and organizational culture have been linked to the prevalence of unethical behavior earlier, but this paper uses a complexity-informed systems perspective to explore the dynamic relationship of these concepts and aims to improve our understanding of the often unnoticeable, step-by-step process through which organizational cultures can become conducive to unethical behavior. Organizations are conceptualized as complex adaptive systems in which transformative and stabilizing processes based on feedback loops take place continuously. It is discussed how these processes can lead to a phase transition driving organizations towards a state where unethical behavior is the general norm. The process is illustrated through real-life examples.

The Dark Tetrad, Intimate Partner Violence and the Mediating Role of Moral Disengagement.

Research suggests that physical, psychological, and/or sexual focussed Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is related to the dark triad (DT) traits of Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism. This study extends these findings by considering the addition of everyday sadism into the four-dimension dark tetrad (DTET), testing the possibility that moral disengagement (MD) mediates the relationship between these variables. It was also examined whether the DTET provided incremental validity to the more general personality traits Honesty-Humility, Emotionality, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Openness (HEXACO) to predict IPV. Males and females (N = 416) from the general population completed five questionnaires in an online survey (HEXACO-60, MMEA, PMDS, CTS2S, SD4). A principal component factor-analysis found that sexual IPV did not load as an individual factor and distinct form of violence on the CTS2S scale so was excluded from this study. Four hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted, using the demographics, HEXACO and either the DTET traits or an overall DTET variable as predictor variables, and either physical or psychological IPV as the dependent variables. Only psychopathy predicted physical and psychological IPV; MD mediated the relationship between psychopathy and psychological IPV. Although the DTET added incremental validity over HEXACO to predict physical IPV, HEXACO low Agreeableness was the strongest predictor of psychological IPV. Those higher in psychopathy may show different offending trajectories for physical and psychological IPV dependent upon the use of MD processes. Despite the DTET adding incremental validity over the HEXACO dimensions, some HEXACO elements better explain the relationship between personality and psychological IPV than the DTET.

Development and Validation of the Ethnic Moral Disengagement Scale.

Research has underlined that moral disengagement processes, by which people switch off their moral values and act aggressively without experiencing guilt, are highly connected with contextual factors. However, research on situational variations in moral disengagement is limited, especially considering the associations with characteristics such as the ethnic origin of potential victims. The general aim of the present study was to develop a brief, specific measure of ethnic moral disengagement able to catch individual justification used in the case of ethnic bullying and cyberbullying, and test its validity and reliability. An eight items scale was developed and administered in study 1, in a sample of 961students attending several Italian high schools (53.5% female; Mage 15 years). Considering the results of the CFA, we modified one of the items and the scale was administered again, in a second sample of 1,229 students (49.9% female; Mage 15.62 years) in study 2. A one-factor model of ethnic moral disengagement fit the data well and internal consistency showed to be good. As an additional step, we found that the model was invariant across Italian adolescents and youths with a different ethnic or culture of origin (having at least one parent born abroad) strengthened our confidence regarding the factorial integrity of the scale. Last, the scale showed to be positively associated with ethnic bullying and cyberbullying. Generally, findings suggested that the Ethnic Moral Disengagement scale can be a useful tool for those interested in measuring moral disengagement and evaluating how it impacts bullying and cyberbullying of minority groups.

Moral Disengagement Strategies in Online and Offline Bullying

Bullying and cyberbullying perpetration can involve cognitive processes of moral disengagement; however, there is no clear evidence about which strategies have the greatest influence on this type of behaviour. The aim of this paper was to examine which dimensions of moral disengagement were associated to bullying (off/online) and to explore the effect of gender and age. A total 1,274 students (48.6% girls, aged 11 to 17 years old) from the south of Spain were surveyed (M = 13.63, SD = 1.31). Multivariate multiple regression analyses showed that age and all moral disengagement mechanisms were associated with both offline and online bullying. Univariate regressions revealed that cognitive restructuring was the most strongly associated with both. The interaction between age and cognitive restructuring was only related to offline bullying. Simple slope analyses showed different effects for younger and older classmates at high levels of cognitive restructuring. Specific moral disengagement strategies have special significance for adolescent bullying and cyberbullying perpetration, with cognitive restructuring in particular promoting bullying perpetration in younger students. The results are discussed in relation to practical implications to prevent bullying and cyberbullying.

Violent Extremism and Moral Disengagement: A Study of Colombian Armed Groups.

Violent extremism is commonly conditioned by a variety of psychological processes and mechanisms that when activated or deactivated aid implication in extreme behavior, including destructive actions with a large dose of cruelty against people and groups. One of those processes is moral disengagement, which was originally postulated by Bandura. To test this relationship, the present research focused on studying these mechanisms in members of Colombian illegal armed groups. Total sample size was 18 (14 males and four females) demobilized members of the Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia [AUC]) and guerrilla organizations (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia [FARC], National Liberation Army [ELN], among others), which had participated directly or indirectly in violent actions against people and groups, which included murders, tortures, and massacres. Qualitative methodology was used, specifically in-depth interviews and content analysis. This analysis led to the verification in the narratives of the participants of the use of all the mechanisms of moral disengagement described by Bandura aiming to justify their behavior within the armed group. The most noteworthy mechanisms were those that minimized participation (especially, attributing behavior to obeying orders: displacement of responsibility) and moral justification, especially, the context of confrontation. Moral disengagement processes are found in armed group members (such as insurgency, terrorist organizations, or militias). These mechanisms cancel ordinary psychological reactions of rejection, fear, and moral controls that oppose the carrying out of cruelty and extreme violence.

Moral disengagement: A new lens with which to examine children’s justifications for lying

ABSTRACTThe development of children’s lie-telling abilities is considered to be a social and cognitive milestone. While occasional lying is developmentally appropriate, the use of frequent, antisocial lies as a maladaptive problem-solving mechanism can indicate behaviour problems. Since lying is often considered a moral transgression, researchers should examine lying from the perspective of moral theory to understand children’s reasons for lying, which may help to understand how chronic lying develops. A theoretical framework, namely the social cognitive process of moral disengagement (MD) could not only provide new insight into children’s justifications for telling common lies, but also atypical, antisocial lies. This paper aims to describe how MD may be applied to explain children’s justifications for lying, especially antisocial lies, and how adults can address MD by modelling the positive consequences of truth-telling, to promote honesty in children.

The selectivity of moral disengagement in defenders of cyberbullying: Contextual moral disengagement

The lack of defending in bystanders to cyberbullying has been linked with the process of moral disengagement, which allows bystanders to justify the morality of their inactivity after witnessing a cyberbullying episode. Context is central in this process as individuals assess the specific contextual cues present within each episode, and it is this assessment that informs their subsequent behavior. Despite the importance of context in moral disengagement, researchers have yet to take this factor into account. To address this gap in literature, the present study examines the role of contextual factors on moral disengagement in specific cyberbullying episodes, and how this process influences cyber defending. This study also consolidates inconsistent results from studies examining moral disengagement and defending by examining defending as a multifaceted construct involving aggressive and constructive defending. To examine these issues, 540 Grade 7 and 9 students completed a survey assessing moral disengagement and defending self-efficacy in two cyberbullying scenarios. Results revealed that in both scenarios, contextualized moral disengagement is shown to be associated with aggressive and constructive defending self-efficacy above and beyond general moral disengagement. Higher levels of contextual moral disengagement are also related to greater aggressive defending self-efficacy whereas lower contextual moral disengagement is linked with greater pro-social defending self-efficacy. These results call for an increased focus on contextual factors when examining morality in cyberbullying and highlight the need to differentiate between pro-social and aggressive forms of defending.

“Sweat a little water, sweat a little blood”: A spectacle of convict labor at an American amusement park

This article examines a representation of convict leasing in an unexpected and seemingly inconsequential place—an amusement park. Located in Branson, Missouri, the popular 1880s-themed Silver Dollar City proudly claims to offer historical education and entertainment through “realistic” constructions of the past. One of the park’s oldest and most popular attractions is the Flooded Mine ride, where park guests travel in “mine carts” through a depiction of a flooding mine, trying to “help the sheriff” by shooting laser light guns at kitschy animatronic convict laborers who are trying to escape. We first examine the Flooded Mine as a unique form of penal spectatorship, arguing that riders are able to enjoy the lighthearted mockery of the convict laborers’ suffering through a process of moral disengagement. Second, we use the lens of collective memory in an endeavor to expose the processes of remembering and forgetting at work in Silver Dollar City. We argue that the simulations of the past constructed in the park are not an apolitical platform for entertainment, but rather work to produce a narrative that perpetuates a kind of white nostalgia that erases black suffering. While ostensibly displaying a story of convict labor, the Flooded Mine depicts all the prisoners as white men, effectively performing an historical erasure of chattel slavery and its transmutation into convict leasing. By obscuring the incalculable pain produced by convict leasing and incarceration, the dissimulation allows riders to avoid any ethical engagement with these systems of racialized control.

Police officers’ perspectives on state (police) violence: A sociomoral and psychological-driven study on disengagement

This paper comprises a theoretical and empirical incursion into the phenomenon of state violence, namely police violence. Although extensively explored in different perspectives within and outside academia, police violence is complex and has not been sufficiently problematized yet. In our understanding, this phenomenon requires a dialectical and dynamic discussion wherein both the development of state powers (macro-perspective) and how these powers affect the subjectification of those who act on their behalf (micro-perspective) are articulated into a critical analysis. In more concrete terms, the present study contributes to such analysis by shedding light on the main processes of moral disengagement (cf. Bandura, 1990, 1999, 2004) disclosed in the internal perspectives of six Portuguese police officers about common daily work-related situations. To legitimize the resort to police violence, police officers rely heavily on different mechanisms of moral disengagement. For instance, sanitizing language (anchored in a police technical jargon) is typically used as a linguistic mechanism to disguise violent actions; advantageous comparisons with other law enforcement agencies or with the recipient’s conduct are typically employed; non-lethal violence is usually minimized and portrayed as innocuous; and the recipient of violence is usually dehumanised and seen as responsible for the acts of violence. The findings are discussed based on the moral disengagement theory (Bandura, 1990, 1999, 2004); on the denial approach (Cohen, 2001, 2003); and on the impact of organizational, legal and socio-cultural dimensions of police organization (e.g., Fassin, 2011; Huggins, Haritos-Fatouros, & Zimbardo, 2002).

The Role of Moral Disengagement on Social Bullying in Dyadic Very Best Friendships

ABSTRACTThis study examined the self-regulatory process of moral disengagement in adolescent social bullying. Moral disengagement was assessed at the individual level, as well as within reciprocated very best friendships. At the dyadic level, this study investigated the role of friendship quality in moderating the influence of a very best friend’s moral disengagement on adolescents’ social bullying. The sample consisted of 710 mainly White students (306 males, 12–17 years). Results showed adolescents’ proneness to moral disengagement was associated with increased social bullying. Further, a very best friend’s moral disengagement was associated with higher social bullying for those who perceived positive qualities in their friendship. The findings highlight the importance of close friends in fostering adolescents’ social bullying.

Moral Disengagement and the Propensity to Endorse Physical Punishment Practices

In this study, a new measure of moral disengagement tailored to physical punishment was developed. Moral disengagement is the selective disengagement of moral standards so that in certain situations unacceptable behavior can be performed without anticipatory self-censure for engaging in such conduct. In order to comprehensively examine the social cognitive process of moral disengagement, this study also investigates whether individuals who endorse higher levels of moral disengagement intend to use more physical punishment, and anticipate feeling less self-censure for using physical punishment. Participants were 323 primarily White Australian college students (46% male). Factor analyses supported a one-factor solution for the physical punishment moral disengagement scale, and the scale was shown to possess good psychometric properties. In accordance with predictions from social cognitive theory, greater moral disengagement proneness was associated with increased intentions to use physical punishment. Further, greater moral disengagement proneness was associated with less anticipated self-censure for using physical punishment. The results from this study provide preliminary evidence demonstrating that selective disengagement from moral standards is associated with greater intentions to use physical punishment.

Coping With Athlete Endorsers’ Immoral Behavior: Roles of Athlete Identification and Moral Emotions on Moral Reasoning Strategies

Athlete endorsers’ transgressions pose a dilemma for loyal fans who have established emotional attachments toward the individual. However, little is known regarding how fans maintain their support for the wrongdoer. Drawing on moral psychology and social identity theory, the current study proposes and examines a conceptual model incorporating athlete identification, moral emotions, moral reasoning strategies, and consumer evaluations. By using an actual scandal involving an NFL player (i.e., Ray Rice), the results show that fan identification suppresses the experience of negative moral emotions but facilitates fans’ moral disengagement processes, which enables fans to support the wrongdoer. Moreover, negative moral emotions motivate the moral coupling process. Findings contribute to the sport consumer behavior literature that highly identified fans seem to regulate negative emotions but deliberately select moral disengagement reasoning strategies to maintain their positive stance toward the wrongdoer and associated brands.

Moral Disengagement: Insights from the Malevolent Leader Dyad of Andrew Carnegie and Henry Frick

Scholars have begun calling for broader conceptualizations of moral disengagement processes that reflect the interaction of dispositional and situational antecedents to a predilection to morally di...

The danger of “new norms” and the continuing relevance of IHL in the post-9/11 era

AbstractIn the post-9/11 era, the label “asymmetric wars” has often been used to question the relevance of certain aspects of international humanitarian law (IHL); to push for redefining the combatant/civilian distinction; and to try to reverse accepted norms such as the bans on torture and assassination. In this piece, we focused on legal and policy discussions in the United States and Israel because they better illustrate the dynamics of State-led “norm entrepreneurship”, or the attempt to propose opposing or modified norms as a revision of IHL. We argue that although these developments are to be taken seriously, they have not weakened the normative power of IHL or made it passé. On the contrary, they have made it more relevant than ever. IHL is not just a complex (and increasingly sophisticated) branch of law detached from reality. Rather, it is the embodiment of widely shared principles of morality and ethics, and stands as a normative “guardian” against processes of moral disengagement that make torture and the acceptance of civilian deaths more palatable.

The Moderating Role of Empathic Concern and Perspective Taking on the Relationship Between Moral Disengagement and Aggression

A significant amount of research shows that adolescents who obfuscate their personal responsibility for aggressive behavior by employing justificatory strategies in the form of moral disengagement processes engage in more aggression. This questionnaire-based study examined the moderating roles of empathic concern and perspective taking in attenuating the association between moral disengagement practices and overt aggression. Participants were 1,152 mainly white Australian adolescents (723 boys) in Grades 7–11 (12.49–16.40 years of age). Consistent with previous research, the findings from this study revealed that moral disengagement proneness was associated with higher levels of selfreported overt aggression. Further, the empathy-related variables of empathic concern and perspective taking each moderated the link between moral disengagement proneness and aggression. At higher levels of empathic concern and perspective taking, the association between moral disengagement proneness and aggression was weaker than at lower levels of each of the empathy-related variables. These results have implications for intervention programs to reduce peer aggression in schools.