Rewards for cruelty and punishment of empathy convert normal people into proud torturers

Evidence

During the training, the recruits were punished with beatings for any signs of compassion or empathy and rewarded for skill in forcing confessions. They not only began to take pride in their brutality but also competed among themselves to see who was the best torturer. Some reported that the exercise of complete domination over their prisoners made them feel like “supermen.” — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 674

Categorization

• XREF: Competition and supermen-status show prestige incentives reshaping moral identity — relevant to how status dynamics drive policy endorsement.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 674