Sanctified harm defuses anticipatory guilt and even converts pride into reward.

Evidence

Reduction of anticipatory guilt over harmful behavior is one such disinhibitory process. Disinhibitory refers to the weakening of restraints over harmful behavior. When harmful means are sanctified as serving worthy purposes, wrongdoers have no reason to be troubled by guilt or to feel the need to make amends. Quite the contrary: They take pride in doing even harm well, and when that harm is ignored or minimized, there is no moral predicament calling for self-sanctions. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 265

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to the logic of moral injury avoidance in military and institutional contexts — the sense that sanctioned violence carries no moral weight.

Related

• Sanctifying harmful means as worthy purposes eliminates anticipatory guilt and need for amends. (similarity 0.91)
• People justify harmful acts to themselves before committing them (similarity 0.84)
• Disengaging self-sanctions requires contesting evidence of harm rather than denying the act (similarity 0.83)
• Criminals must preserve self-respect by sanitizing and deflecting blame for misconduct. (similarity 0.82)
• Keeping harm out of sight enables genuine belief in one’s innocence (similarity 0.80)
• Belief in a cause’s morality turns destructive acts into pride (similarity 0.80)
• Ignorance of harm makes self-deception morally possible (similarity 0.79)
• Ignoring or discrediting harm evidence disables self-censure and motivates no change (similarity 0.78)
• Explaining cruelty’s mechanisms does not excuse it (similarity 0.78)