Moral disengagement level determines whether bystanders cheer abuse or defend victims

Evidence

Thornberg and Jungert (2013) found that high moral disengagers cheer bullies on in their maltreatment of victims. In contrast, bystanders who see the moral wrongness of the abusive conduct are prone to come to victims’ defense. However, intervening carries the risk of also becoming a target of bullies. It is the bystanders with a high sense of efficacy in mediating conflicts and subduing bullies who act on their moral disquiet. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 283

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the ‘moral courage’ literature and research on why people intervene (or don’t) in emergencies, e.g. Latane and Darley’s work. — connects to: Bystander passivity both legitimizes perpetrators and transforms the bystanders themselves — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 72; Bystander passivity compounds through self-justification and victim devaluation. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 138; Bystander intervention must happen early to stop atrocity evolution — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 161
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 283