Perpetrators who minimize harm can genuinely deceive themselves about their own role.

Evidence

Cardinal Mahony (2013) minimized the harmfulness of the sexual abuse, calling it “misconduct,” as though it were mere misbehavior rather than a sex crime. He minimized the scope of the sex scandal as well: “During these intervening years a small number of cases did arise.” In a statement reflecting a bewildering lack of compassion and sensitivity to the enduring harm caused by sexual abuse in childhood, Mahony attributed his actions to naiveté: “I remained naïve myself about the full and lasting impact these horrible acts would have on the lives of those who were abused by men who were supposed to be their spiritual guides” (Lovett, 2013). Even his early training in social work, he explained, did not prepare him for dealing with child molestation: “Nothing in my own background or education equipped me to deal with this grave problem … no textbook and no lecture ever referred to the sexual abuse of children” (Mahony, 2013). It was not until he met with 90 abused victims, he said, that he had come to understand the harm inflicted on the children. This is an example of genuine self-deception. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 521

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to vault claims on how people rationalize supporting harmful policy via self-deceptive minimization; parallels Bandura’s harm-minimization disengagement mechanism.
• DEFINE: Distinguishes genuine self-deception from mere lying, a key precision in the mechanism account.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 521