

Moral disengagement describes the mechanisms we use to convince ourselves that our actions which violate our moral standards are permissible.
Moral disengagement describes the processes we use to convince ourselves, without changing our moral standards, that our actions which violate those standards are permissible. Psychologist Albert Bandura defined four categories of mechanisms we commonly use to disengage from our moral responsibilities.
Behavioral
We convince ourselves that harmful behavior is good behavior by using moral, social, or economic justifications. For example we use a moral justification: “My god demands that I kill the heathens” (moral); or a social justification: “Immigration threatens our nation’s culture” (social); or an economic justification: “CEOs make all the money” (economic).
We may also disguise our harmful acts using euphemistic language, such as calling innocent citizens “collateral damage” in war. Or, we may justify our harmful acts by using advantageous comparisons like, “My product kills people, but not as many as cigarettes do.”
Agency
We disengage morally when we displace our moral responsibility or diffuse it. We hold someone else, or a group, responsible for our transgressions. For example, we use displacement: “Silly environmental regulations forced us to hide our violations”; or diffusion: “It wasn’t my idea… We all said OK”.
Effects
When we disregard, distort, or deny the effects of our actions, we are also practicing moral disengagement. For example, we disregard: “Look at all the information we got from torturing him”; or we distort: “I don’t care what the statistics say, we saved jobs”; or we deny: “A little sexual banter never hurt anyone”.
Victim
When we dehumanize or blame the victim, rather than focus on our own behavior, we are also practicing moral disengagement. For example, we dehumanize: “Our enemies are nothing but animals”: or blame: “That guy was so dumb he deserved to be ripped off”.
Research shows that people with a strong moral identity or higher empathy are less likely to use these techniques to rationalize harm. But many people have used moral disengagement to justify major moral wrongs like fraud, torture, and murder. So, regardless of the impact, we must all guard against the subtle appeal of moral disengagements.
Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory (1976).
Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm and Live with Themselves (2016).
Adam Barsky, Investigating the Effects of Moral Disengagement and Participation on Unethical Work Behavior, 104 Journal of Business Ethics 59 (2011).
Max Bazerman & Ann Tenbrunsel, Blind Spots (2011).
James Detert et al, Moral disengagement in Ethical Decision Making: A Study of Antecedents and Outcomes, 93 Journal of Applied Psychology 374 (2008).
Lydia Jackson & Lowell Gaertner, Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement and Their Differential Use by Right-wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation in Support of War, 36 Aggressive Behavior 238 (2010).
Celia Moore, Moral Disengagement in Processes of Organizational Corruption, 80 Journal of Business Ethics 129 (2008).
Robert Sternberg, A Review of Moral Disengagement, PsycCRITIQUES Review, March 2016.