Group decision making lets members discount their share of collective harm

Evidence

Followers who disowned responsibility, without being bound by a sense of duty, would be quite unreliable in performing their duties when the authorities were not present. … Group decision making is a common practice that can result in otherwise considerate people behaving inhumanely. The faceless group becomes the agent that does the deciding and the authorizing. Members can discount their contribution to the policies and practices arrived at collectively so they are not really responsible. When everyone is responsible, no one really feels responsible. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 429

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines diffuse responsibility and the ‘when everyone is responsible, no one really feels responsible’ mechanism.
• CANDY: ‘When everyone is responsible, no one really feels responsible’ is a quotable one-liner.
• XREF: connects to: Divine legitimization of group advantage removes accountability for causing harm.; Ambiguity in harm perceptions lets dominant groups minimize inequality and ease their collective guilt. — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 592; Mere ingroup membership biases members to deny their group’s causal role in harm — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 298