Corporate actors deflect moral blame by comparing themselves to worse harms

Evidence

Reducing moral self-sanctions by means of advantageous comparisons is typically achieved by contrasting one’s harmful activity with more egregious inhumanities. John Risdall, president of the gun manufacturer Magnum Research, used this common mode of corporate exoneration: “But don’t tell me I’m immoral for selling this product. Did the people at Honeywell who were making components for nuclear weapons feel they could be doing something immoral? I don’t think so. It was a business” (Diaz, 1999). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1077 (#expands, via linked claim)

In The Storyteller, a television movie directed by Robert Markowitz that was designed to vindicate televised violence, a father reminds his married daughter, who is concerned about televised fare, that classic children’s stories are of violence: “Little Red Riding Hood” and “Hansel and Gretel” are much worse (Levinson & Link, 1977). Other media personnel point to the knights of yore in the tales of King Arthur as a mighty violent lot. The violence on television is said to pale in comparison to that in comic books. Why pick on television, the scapegoat disclaimer goes, when the government is wreaking havoc through societal violence? “To examine violence where the end result is a dead body on television glosses over the point. This evades the culpability of a whole society which permits wars… . Television and motion pictures are fall guys for a sick society” (Baldwin & Lewis, 1972). Even the death toll caused by the tobacco industry is recruited in the service of comparative exoneration: “Exploring the effects of violence on my program is a sliver as compared with manifestations of violence in the total society. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 837 (#expands, via linked claim)

Story and Morgenson (2011a) provide a detailed account of how widespread machinations caused the economic debacle without anyone’s feeling accountable for it. They cite William Black, a law professor who directed litigation during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. He called the existing atmosphere a “criminogenic environment.” He contrasted the vigorous litigation of the savings and loan transgressions with the lethargic federal response to the global economic catastrophe: “There were no criminal referrals from the regulators. No fraud working groups. No national task force. There has been no effective punishment of the elites here.” — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1556 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Corporate climate deniers are corrupt, not confused about reality; Corporations readily actualize high potential for incubating organizational harm; Harmful actors deflect blame by comparing their acts to worse ones — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 837 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Corporations excuse harm by comparing themselves to worse actors. #expands (0.97) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1077
• Harmful actors deflect blame by comparing their acts to worse ones #expands (0.95) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 837
• Diffusion of blame across many actors erases individual accountability for collective harm #complicates (0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1556