Independent institutions can check a perpetrator group’s escalating destructiveness

Evidence

In most social systems, diffusion and displacement of responsibility figure prominently in self-exoneration for harm that is caused collectively. People do not feel personally responsible if they view their harmful actions as prescribed by authorities. The authorities themselves create mazy chains of authorization, sanction detrimental conduct surreptitiously, keep themselves intentionally uninformed, and devise insulating social arrangements that permit deniability of wrongdoing (Bandura, 1999). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1826 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Bystander responses determine whether perpetrator groups escalate or are checked — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3945; Intergroup violence can erupt without prior animosity when institutions fail and trust collapses — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 655; Organized harm is enabled by deliberately diffuse chains of authority (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Effective systems of wrongdoing recruit dutiful subordinates who disown responsibility for harm #complicates (0.79)
• Organized harm is enabled by deliberately diffuse chains of authority #complicates (0.78)
• Diffuse responsibility and insulated authority permit denial of collectively caused harm #complicates (0.77) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1826
• Perpetrators deflect systemic wrongdoing onto isolated bad apples #complicates (0.76) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1431
• Social systems can be structured to institutionalize self-deception among officials #complicates (0.74) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 705