Perpetrators recruit advantageous comparisons and commercial neutrality to deflect responsibility.

Evidence

When asked if he felt any qualms about supplying torture equipment to Idi Amin, the ruthless dictator of Uganda, Terpil justified his actions by advantageous comparison with the workers who manufactured napalm at Dow Chemical. As he put it, “I’m sure that the people from Dow Chemical didn’t think of the consequences of selling napalm. If they did, they wouldn’t be working at the factory. I doubt very much if they’d feel any more responsible for the ultimate use than I did for my equipment.” When pressed about the atrocities committed at Amin’s torture chambers under the sanitized designation State Research Bureau, Terpil repeated his depersonalized view: “I do not get wrapped up emotionally with the country. I regard myself basically as neutral, and commercial” (Thomas, 1982). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2201

Categorization

• DEFINE: Two more mechanisms in Bandura’s catalogue—advantageous comparison and diffusion/depersonalization—demonstrated through one vivid interview.