Moral Disengagement Scale

What it measures

Measures eight cognitive mechanisms through which individuals disengage their moral self-regulatory standards to engage in harmful behaviour without experiencing guilt or self-censure. Moral Justification reconstructs harmful behaviour as serving a higher moral purpose. Euphemistic Labelling uses sanitising language to make harmful actions appear benign. Advantageous Comparison minimises harm by contrasting it with greater atrocities. Displacement of Responsibility shifts responsibility to authority figures. Diffusion of Responsibility dilutes personal accountability through collective action. Distortion of Consequences minimises or ignores the harm caused. Attribution of Blame places responsibility on the victim. Dehumanisation strips victims of human qualities. In marketing and consumer research, moral disengagement predicts unethical consumer behaviour, acceptance of corporate misconduct, reduced CSR responsiveness, and willingness to engage in greenwashing or deceptive practices. Foundational to research on corporate ethical failures and consumer complicity.

Representative items

• It is alright to beat up someone who bad-mouths your family. (Moral Justification)
• Hitting a friend who hurts you is just paying them back for what they did. (Advantageous Comparison)
• It is not the workers' fault if their company harms the environment — they just follow orders. (Displacement)
• If people get ripped off by a company, it is partly their own fault for not being more careful. (Attribution of Blame)
• People who live in miserable conditions cannot really be held to the same standards as everyone else. (Dehumanisation)

Citation

Bandura, A., Barbaranelli, C., Caprara, G.V., & Pastorelli, C. (1996). Mechanisms of moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2), 364–374.