Even a directly involved wrongdoer recruits displacement and diffusion of responsibility.

Evidence

Cardinal Mahony’s direct involvement in the deception precluded the oft-used downward displacement of responsibility by claiming he wasn’t informed about what was going on. However, the cover-up methods that were used did involve extensive displacement and diffusion of responsibility. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 523

Categorization

• XREF: Illustrates how multiple rationalization mechanisms stack, relevant to vault claims on layered ideological self-justification. — connects to: Fraudsters blame enablers to shift moral responsibility.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 523