Execution methods evolved toward ever finer division of labor to diffuse moral responsibility

Evidence

Electrocution replaced hanging as supposedly more humane, although the sight of the condemned’s popped eyeballs, bloody vomit, and burning flesh is anything but humane. In electrocution, members of the execution team diffuse responsibility by each strapping different parts of the body to the electric chair. Lethal injection, in turn, replaced electrocution because it was perceived to be less gruesome. The execution process diffuses responsibility even more broadly with the addition of an intravenous team. The institutional arrangement diffuses the agentic subfunctions across a variety of individuals, each performing only a small task in the division of labor. The strap-down team escorts the condemned inmate to the death chamber. Each member straps a particular part of the body: left leg, right leg, left arm and torso, right arm and torso, and head, all under close supervision of the team leader. They approach their task with a strong sense of technical responsibility. As one team member put it, “We each have a small role on the team. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1934

Categorization

• STORYSTEM: The ‘each straps one body part’ ritual of scrupulous technical duty as a way to avoid facing what’s actually happening is a strong scene device — a bureaucratic procedure where every participant competently does a fragment while refusing to see the whole.