Wrongdoers recast personal flaws as assets by citing their side benefits

Evidence

Armstrong describes his personal flaw as a “relentless desire to win at all costs.” However, he does not regard the flaw as a defect, rather as a powerful asset that enables him to do extraordinary things. Any accompanying harm is an unavoidable side effect. This was the driving force, he explained, that enabled him to triumph over his metastasized cancer and to defeat his cycling challengers. These two benefits demonstrate that the flaw can result in good things as well as detrimental ones. Armstrong could also take pride in the good work done by his cancer foundation, for which he raised millions of dollars. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 244

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to self-serving bias research and to ‘advantageous comparison’ in moral disengagement; also echoes Nietzsche on the revaluation of values where weakness is reframed as strength. — connects to: Fraud defendants can sincerely recast self-interest as heroism against banks — Anna Merlan, Republic of Lies, 654