Moral Disengagement: How Transgression Becomes Justified

Within the Path

Prepared and presented by: Mohra Al Zubair
Produced by: Warrant Officer Ward Al Rawahi
Production: ALSUMOOD FM

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Within the bath. Every bath begins with a vision where ideas and strategies define directions. From the depth of strategic thinking to ever-evolving dynamics of the world. A program broadcast in English brings insight into the journeys that shape the course of individuals, institutions, and nations. Prepared and presented by Moharab Pintis Dubayr as-Zubair and Audio Director, Warrant Officer Warat Bin Salim Ar-Rawhay.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Assalamu Alaikum, dear friends. Welcome back to Within the Path. Our last four episodes dedicated to Ramadan focused on key themes in Islam. We started with a concept of takwah. From there, we moved to the subject of justice, where we specifically looked at warfare in Islam. We learned that fighting is only permitted in self-defense. And even then, it comes with very strict limits and conditions. And the Quran commands us not to transgress those limits, which we spoke about in depth last episode. And there is another powerful reminder in the Quran, not to let the hatred of a people lead us to injustice. In other words, even in moments of conflict, emotions like anger or resentment cannot be allowed to blur our sense of right and wrong. Taken together, these discussions remind us that moral principles are meant to act as a compass and to ground us especially when circumstances become difficult. And so today, I would like us to explore a related question. If people develop moral standards that tell us what is right and wrong, why do people sometimes act against those standards? And how can people who are decent and compassionate sometimes do things that harm others? One of the most influential explanations to these questions comes from the psychologist Albert Bandura, who introduced a concept known as moral disengagement. He explained that something puzzled him when studying moral behavior, and that much of the research on morality focuses on how people develop moral standards, how we learn what is right and wrong, and that these standards are meant to serve as guides and deterrents for transgressive conduct. Yet when we look at many acts of cruelty throughout history, they are carried out by people who, in other aspects of their lives, can be compassionate. So the question becomes, why and how do people who are considered as good by some go on to do cruel things? Bandura said that adopting moral standards is only part of the story. People also possess, as he says, the talent to selectively engage and disengage their standards. He uses the example of a prison camp commandant who is writing a compassionate letter to his sick father, expressing empathy. In that same moment, he looks out the window, sees a prisoner who he feels is not working hard enough, and shoots him. Here, in the same instance, the commandant is capable of both compassion and extreme cruelty. And so, Bandura says, the difference here is who do you include in your category of humanity, and who do you exclude from your category of humanity? To explain how this happens, Bandhura identified several psychological mechanisms, of which moral justification is seen as one of the most powerful. In this process, harmful actions are framed as serving a noble or worthy purpose. So when people believe their actions are contributing to an important cause, whether ideological, political, or national, they may begin to see destructive behavior as justified. When actions are framed as serving a higher purpose, individuals and institutions may come to see this harmful conduct as morally acceptable. Another mechanism involves sanitized languages and euphemisms that hide the real harm occurring. There is also advantageous comparison, where people minimize their own harmful behavior by comparing it to something worse. Bandura noted that these first three mechanisms, moral justification, euphemistic language, and advantageous comparison are especially powerful because as he explains, they not only disengage your morality from destructive behavior, but if you buy into the justifications, it also engages your morality in the mission. Dear friends, stay tuned and we'll be back right after this break. Dear friends, welcome back. Another mechanism that Bandura speaks about is displacement of responsibility. And this happens when individuals believe that they are simply carrying out instructions from authority. He also speaks about diffusion of responsibility, which happens when harmful actions are spread across many people within a system or organization. So when responsibility is shared among many individuals, each person may feel less personally accountable for the final outcome. Another mechanism involves minimizing or ignoring the consequences of harmful behavior. So if individuals avoid confronting the real impact of their actions, their moral awareness may never fully activate. And finally, two mechanisms involve blaming the victim and dehumanizing those who are harmed. When individuals portray others as deserving of their suffering, or begin to see them as somehow less human, it becomes easier to suppress empathy and justify harmful treatment. So what these mechanisms really do is help us begin to understand why and how people sometimes act the way they do in these situations. They give us a way to make sense of something that can otherwise feel very confusing. How moral standards, which we often think of as foundational and always present, can suddenly become selective, where compassion is directed to some people, but withheld from others. And this is precisely conflicting. Because morality is meant to be human and universal. Otherwise, it loses the very essence of what morality is meant to be. It loses the universal human character that gives morality its meaning. But the moment it becomes disengaged, it can turn into other things, like racism, exclusion, or indifference to the suffering of others. Going back to Bandura's example of the prison camp commandant who writes a compassionate letter to his sick father, and in that very same moment, looks out the window, sees a prisoner he believes is not working hard enough, and shoots him. When we look at the mechanisms we discussed, we can begin to see how something like this becomes possible. The victim is dehumanized, which makes empathy easier to suppress. And the act of shooting is probably so normalized that regardless of the reason, it is justified within the system. And once these mechanisms take hold, actions that would normally feel unthinkable can begin to happen almost automatically. And this makes one think, in moments like that, does the perpetrator ever pause? Does the gravity of what they have done ever occur to them? Even briefly? It may or it may not. But there is a real possibility that for some, that realization comes to them. And when it does, that thought may quickly be pushed aside. Because truly facing it would challenge not only the individual, but the entire system that surrounds them. And this is what makes moral disengagement so powerful. It allows harmful actions, transgressive conduct to continue without forcing individuals or systems to fully confront the reality of what is happening. This brings us to something personal. When we do something wrong, when we hurt another person, and later feel remorse or regret, that response is actually a healthy sign. It is a form of self-confrontation, something not everyone finds easy to do. Some people prefer to brush past their actions rather than face them. But when we allow ourselves to confront what we have done, it shows that our moral compass is active. This process of self-evaluation becomes a wake-up call. It becomes a grounding mechanism that strengthens our moral awareness. Because this awareness is not only about knowing what is right and wrong. It is about being honest enough with ourselves to confront our own actions and having the courage to take responsibility for them. Thank you. Until next time, this is Mura Az-Zubayr from within the path.

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Within the bath. Every bath begins with a vision where ideas and strategies define directions. From the depth of strategic thinking to ever-evolving dynamics of the world.