Diffused responsibility allows individuals to deny being executioners

Evidence

The second means of support for self-deception relies on mazy social systems of nonresponsibility that enable individuals to distance themselves from harmful practices to which they are parties. This permits them to believe that they are blameless. Culpable individuals can maintain a self-deceptive belief in their innocence as long as they remain uninformed about the adverse outcomes of their activities and have the benefit of social arrangements that obscure any sense of personal responsibility. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 711 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Distancing executioners from the act weakens moral restraint against killing; Executing a person requires stripping morality from each step of the process — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1868; A society can sentence people to death yet remain unwilling to actually execute them — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2070 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Diffuse responsibility systems let culpable people genuinely believe they are innocent #corroborates (0.95) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 711