Compassion directed through collectives secretly threatens those it claims to help

Evidence

Consistent with social identity theory, research has also demonstrated that individuals can experience emotions on behalf of their in-group (Mackie & Smith, 2002). Dumont, Yzerbyt, Wigboldus, and Gordjin (2003), for instance, showed that when people perceive victims of harmful behavior as belonging to their group, they feel more anger, and this anger increases their intentions to ameliorate the situation. In a context in which the in-group is not the victim, but the perpetrator, the very action attributed to the in-group may be denied (Cohen, 2001). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2092 (#expands, via linked claim)

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 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The collective’s brutality masks manipulation rather than true human quality; Compassion fails when sufferers are collectivities rather than visible individuals; Collective moral disengagement arises from members mutually exonerating each role in a shared system — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 685 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Compassion fails when sufferers are collectivities rather than visible individuals #corroborates (0.92)
• People feel emotions for group members and deny their group’s harmful acts #expands (0.78) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2092
• Collective moral disengagement arises from members mutually exonerating each role in a shared system #expands (0.75) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 685