Experimental Research in Persuasion Artikelen
Artikel 1 Impending Ecological Sustainability through Selective Moral Disengagement
Moral agency: individual's ability to make moral choices based on some notion of right and
wrong and to be held accountable for these actions
Detrimental practices: practices tending to cause harm
Moral self-sanctions: keeping conduct in line with internal moral standards and hence also in
regulating inhumane conduct
1. Introduction
Examine the selective disengagement of morel self-sanctions as an impediment to collective
action designed to stabilize and reverse the ecological degradation
The harm of the earth is largely a product of human activity → societies have a moral
obligation to preserve the environment
Environmental degradation of human origin stems from three major sources
1. Population size
2. The level of consumption
3. The damage to the ecosystem caused by the technologies used to supply the
consumable products and to support a given lifestyle
2. Mechanisms of moral disengagement
The ongoing exercise of evaluative self-sanctions motivates and regulates moral conduct
(moreel gedrag)
The self-regulatory mechanisms governing moral conduct do not operate unless they are
activated
There are many psychosocial maneuvers by which moral self-sanctions can be selectively
disengaged from harmful practices
,Psychological mechanisms through which moral self-sanctions are selectively disengaged
from detrimental practices (tending to cause harm) at different points in exercise of moral
agency
Detrimental practices → Injurious effects → Victim
(1) Moral justification (4) Minimizing consequences (5) Dehumanisation
(2) Exonerative comparison (6) Attribution of blame
(3) Euphemistic labeling
(7) Displacement of responsibility
(8) Diffusion of responsibility
Social Cognitive Theory rejects a duality of human agency and social structure as a reified
entity disembodied from individuals
- Social systems are the product of human activity
- Rules and practices of social systems influence human development and functioning
3. Social and moral justification
Social and moral justifications sanctify harmful practices by investing them with worthy
purposes → people preserve a sense of self-worth while causing harm by their activities
- Economic advantages
- Societal benefits
- Strengthening national security
Conservative environmentalism: human domination over nature is the natural order
- Nature is a resource that can be owned and used by the owners in pursuit of personal
interests and how they choose to live their lives
Alternative form of environmentalism: human well-beings are inextricably linked to the
health of the ecological system
- Natural resources should be used in a sustainable way to preserve a habitable planet
for future generations
Modern conditions cause people’s lifestyles to be disconnected in time and place from the
ecological system that provides the basis for them
, 4. Exonerative comparison
By exploiting the contrast principle, the detrimental practices can be made right
How practices are viewed is coloured by what they are compared against
5. Euphemistic language
Language shapes perceptions and thought processes on which actions are based
- Moral self-sanctions can be reduced by cloaking harmful activities in sanitized,
convoluted and innocuous language
Sanitizing language shapes people’s perception of reality and increases their willingness to
engage in detrimental activities
6. Displacement and diffusion of responsibility
Moral control operates most strongly when people acknowledge that they are contributing to
harmful outcomes
Moral control is also weakened when personal agency is obscured by diffusing responsibility
for detrimental behavior → group decision making reduces a sense of personal accountability
Displacement and diffusion of responsibility are not just cognitive mechanisms → they are
built in the structure of social systems to obscure personal accountability
Displacement of responsibility is often enlisted in industrial disasters → corporate
vindication is achieved by shifting the blame
7. Disregarding, minimizing and disrupting detrimental effect
When people pursue activities that serve their interests but produce detrimental effects they
avoid facing the harm they cause or they minimize the harm they cause → little reason for
self-censure to be activated
Various stages of denial of adverse climate change
- Outright denial or treating it as nothing new
- Acknowledging that the earth may be warming, but we don’t know why that is
happening
Artikel 1 Impending Ecological Sustainability through Selective Moral Disengagement
Moral agency: individual's ability to make moral choices based on some notion of right and
wrong and to be held accountable for these actions
Detrimental practices: practices tending to cause harm
Moral self-sanctions: keeping conduct in line with internal moral standards and hence also in
regulating inhumane conduct
1. Introduction
Examine the selective disengagement of morel self-sanctions as an impediment to collective
action designed to stabilize and reverse the ecological degradation
The harm of the earth is largely a product of human activity → societies have a moral
obligation to preserve the environment
Environmental degradation of human origin stems from three major sources
1. Population size
2. The level of consumption
3. The damage to the ecosystem caused by the technologies used to supply the
consumable products and to support a given lifestyle
2. Mechanisms of moral disengagement
The ongoing exercise of evaluative self-sanctions motivates and regulates moral conduct
(moreel gedrag)
The self-regulatory mechanisms governing moral conduct do not operate unless they are
activated
There are many psychosocial maneuvers by which moral self-sanctions can be selectively
disengaged from harmful practices
,Psychological mechanisms through which moral self-sanctions are selectively disengaged
from detrimental practices (tending to cause harm) at different points in exercise of moral
agency
Detrimental practices → Injurious effects → Victim
(1) Moral justification (4) Minimizing consequences (5) Dehumanisation
(2) Exonerative comparison (6) Attribution of blame
(3) Euphemistic labeling
(7) Displacement of responsibility
(8) Diffusion of responsibility
Social Cognitive Theory rejects a duality of human agency and social structure as a reified
entity disembodied from individuals
- Social systems are the product of human activity
- Rules and practices of social systems influence human development and functioning
3. Social and moral justification
Social and moral justifications sanctify harmful practices by investing them with worthy
purposes → people preserve a sense of self-worth while causing harm by their activities
- Economic advantages
- Societal benefits
- Strengthening national security
Conservative environmentalism: human domination over nature is the natural order
- Nature is a resource that can be owned and used by the owners in pursuit of personal
interests and how they choose to live their lives
Alternative form of environmentalism: human well-beings are inextricably linked to the
health of the ecological system
- Natural resources should be used in a sustainable way to preserve a habitable planet
for future generations
Modern conditions cause people’s lifestyles to be disconnected in time and place from the
ecological system that provides the basis for them
, 4. Exonerative comparison
By exploiting the contrast principle, the detrimental practices can be made right
How practices are viewed is coloured by what they are compared against
5. Euphemistic language
Language shapes perceptions and thought processes on which actions are based
- Moral self-sanctions can be reduced by cloaking harmful activities in sanitized,
convoluted and innocuous language
Sanitizing language shapes people’s perception of reality and increases their willingness to
engage in detrimental activities
6. Displacement and diffusion of responsibility
Moral control operates most strongly when people acknowledge that they are contributing to
harmful outcomes
Moral control is also weakened when personal agency is obscured by diffusing responsibility
for detrimental behavior → group decision making reduces a sense of personal accountability
Displacement and diffusion of responsibility are not just cognitive mechanisms → they are
built in the structure of social systems to obscure personal accountability
Displacement of responsibility is often enlisted in industrial disasters → corporate
vindication is achieved by shifting the blame
7. Disregarding, minimizing and disrupting detrimental effect
When people pursue activities that serve their interests but produce detrimental effects they
avoid facing the harm they cause or they minimize the harm they cause → little reason for
self-censure to be activated
Various stages of denial of adverse climate change
- Outright denial or treating it as nothing new
- Acknowledging that the earth may be warming, but we don’t know why that is
happening
