Executioners stay silent about their work out of fear of social stigmatization

Evidence

The compartmentalization of their worklife extends to their other social relationships as well: “We don’t speak about it and we don’t talk about what we do back there. We do our job proudly, but we don’t want to talk about it with anyone”. Social silence is motivated by the fear that being identified as an executioner is likely to change their social identities in terms of the worst prototype of an executioner. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2047

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader moral disengagement project — silence as a face-management strategy paralleling Goffman’s stigma work.
• CANDY: ‘We do our job proudly, but we don’t want to talk about it with anyone’ is a compact, tweetable paradox of pride and shame.