MUELLER-DISSERTATION-2019.pdf (2.33 MB)
Is Moral Disengagement Really Maximal Moral Engagement?
thesis
posted on 2019-08-01, 00:00 authored by Allison MuellerThe goal of this dissertation was to explore why people are willing to harm their political
opponents. Although Bandura (1999) theorized that a variety of processes could license
reprehensible behavior, I contended that moral justification (i.e., reconstruing harmful acts as
supportive of a higher moral purpose) would be a primary path toward violence because it would
preserve (or even enhance) people’s positive self-views. To the extent that people construe
morally motivated violence to be in service of the greater good at personal risk, they may: (1)
downplay the transgressiveness of their behavior, (2) focus on the morally mandated outcome
achieved, (3) ultimately construe the behavior to be morally upstanding, and (4) temporarily
enjoy an inflated moral self-concept. Results did not support these hypotheses. People
strategically endorsed mild harms at contentious political rallies to serve their strong moral
convictions (i.e., picketing and staging sit-ins). But they resisted endorsing severe harms against
obnoxious protesters (e.g., pushing, kicking, or spitting at those targets), especially when they
had a strong moral commitment to the issue at stake. Moreover, morally motivated endorsement
of mild harms was never linked to boosts in moral self-image. Overall, these findings suggest a
limit to morally motivated political engagement: People feel comfortable endorsing mild forms
of activism to serve their strong moral convictions but not violent forms. Future research
employing a variety of methodologies (e.g., field and archival methods) should continue
exploring the psychological levers that enable people to commit atrocities.
History
Advisor
Skitka, LindaChair
Skitka, LindaDepartment
PsychologyDegree Grantor
University of Illinois at ChicagoDegree Level
- Doctoral
Degree name
PhD, Doctor of PhilosophyCommittee Member
Holbrook , Allyson Stahl , Tomas Kutlaca, Maja Quinn, KimberlySubmitted date
August 2019Thesis type
application/pdfLanguage
- en