Moral Disengagement and Engagement

Do state governments have the right to kill civilians to defeat international terrorism? Views from US, Israel and South Africa

“…In addition, the literature is enriched by the qualitative examples we provide of the arguments formulated by ordinary people in diverse parts of the world regarding civilian casualties. Moreover, our finding that in the international sample as a whole and Israel more specifically, more men than women provided morally disengaged responses adds to the findings from previous studies showing higher MD in men than women (Ashy and Malley-Morrison, 2007;Grussendorf et al, 2002;Hashim and Malley-Morrison, 2007;Malley-Morrison et al, 2009;Perren and Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, 2012). Moreover, our finding that significantly more women than men in the South African sample were morally engaged is a significant contribution to the very scant literature on ME in opposition to state aggression and worthy of further investigation.…”

“…These findings support the validity of Bandura's (2002) assumption that MD processes are a universal means for justifying deviations from moral standards. It also provides support for the postulation by Malley-Morrison et al (2009) that humans are likewise universally capable of ME, in ways providing specific counterpoints to the MD processes described by Bandura. Moreover, the mixed-method design provided a relatively unique look at the kinds of moral reasoning that seem to underlie many political attitudes and opinions.…”

“…portraying victims as the instigators of violence against them; and 8. dehumanizing the victims. Malley-Morrison et al (2009) identified corresponding mechanisms of ME, all of which involve harnessing moral agency. The mechanisms of ME are: raising moral arguments against aggression; using realistic language to describe aggression; promoting alternatives to aggression; emphasizing governmental responsibility to protect citizens and set a standard for moral behavior); attending to the negative consequences of aggression; and humanizing the victims.…”

“…Although the evidence is mixed, the bulk of the relevant studies found that in comparison to men, women were significantly less morally disengaged (Ashy and Malley-Morrison, 2007;Caprara et al, 2009;Grussendorf et al, 2002;Hashim and Malley-Morrison, 2007;Howard et al, 2007;Mcalister et al, 2006). Moreover, there is some evidence that women are significantly more morally engaged than men in regards to government aggression (Malley-Morrison et al, 2009). Efforts to examine relationships between MD/engagement and measures of support for governmental aggression are quite rare.…”

“…He identified eight mechanisms of MD that allow ordinary people to engage in or condone inhumane behaviors while still viewing themselves as moral beings. Malley-Morrison et al (2009) expanded on Bandura's theory, formulating corresponding mechanisms of ME. The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which arguments regarding a presumed right of countries to kill innocent civilians in response to international terrorism reflected morally disengaged and morally engaged reasoning.…”