Collective moral disengagement arises from members mutually exonerating each role in a shared system

Evidence

As evident from the preceding examples, moral disengagement is not confined to individuals acting independently. Quite the contrary. It often operates on a large scale within multiple interdependent social systems. Collective moral disengagement at the social system level requires a network of participants vindicating their harmful practices. As explained earlier, there is no group mind doing the moral disengaging independent of the behavior of its members (Bandura, 2004). Rather, members act together on their shared beliefs. With collective moral disengagement, members do not have to concoct their own individual exonerations. Instead, the different players in the system have to neutralize the moral implications of their role in their organizational activities. In doing so, they provide exonerations for each other. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 685

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines collective moral disengagement as a multi-player systemic phenomenon versus individual exonerations.
• XREF: Connects to Eichmann-in-Jerusalem-style diffusion of responsibility among bureaucrats and Shirley Jackson’s ‘Lottery’ mechanics. — connects to: Compassion directed through collectives secretly threatens those it claims to help; Shared complicity in oppressive systems sustains them through everyday banal gestures of conformity. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 930; Cooperative members who lack psychological ownership tend to disengage. — Adrian Josef Amon, Organizing the study of degeneration…, 101 (+4 more)