Virtuous character does not yield consistent moral behavior across situations

Evidence

Virtue ethics is essentially a dispositional trait theory of morality. Theories that invest dispositions with overruling power predict higher consistency in moral behavior across situations and areas of life than is observed (Bandura, 1999). In practice, virtuous individuals can behave harmfully under social inducements and even enlist their virtues in the service of violent means for ideological and religious purposes. When bad means are used for good ends, virtues conflict. Inflicting harm is morally reprehensible but improving peoples’ well-being is morally laudatory. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 202

Categorization

• XREF: This chimes against virtue-ethics framing in moral philosophy and political theory — character assumed to guarantee conduct. — connects to: Grandeur in character requires an open future, not innate virtue — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1745; Self-maintenance criteria for moral worth fail to set defensible boundaries — Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 775
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 202