The Moral Identity and Immoral Behavior

Abstract

We describe how people can claim to be moral individuals while simultaneously engaging in immoral behavior. We take as our starting point moral disengagement strategies in which people selectively disengage from their harmful behavior. People may equate their harmful actions with worthy goals; soften bad actions to make them sound better; ignore or deny bad consequences; or blame others for bad outcomes. We argue that these and other strategies are cognitive devices to manage identity non-verification (“I am a good person, but I am doing a bad thing”) and the negative feelings that ensue. We discuss how different strategies are used depending upon the identities that are activated, and how these strategies evolve from a deliberate process that becomes habitual over time. We also discuss how these strategies might be tempered so that individuals become aware of the bad consequences of their behavior and take steps to alleviate them.