An Overview of Moral Disengagement in Consumer Studies

Year 2021, Volume: 9 Issue: 2, 541 - 551, 15.04.2021

Enis Yakut

https://doi.org/10.18506/anemon.892099

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Moral Disengagement is a collection of socio-cognitive mechanisms by which individuals detach themselves from ethical actions and participate in inhumane, abusive, damaging, or horrifying acts toward others without showing remorse and self-censure. Previous studies revealed the significant role of moral disengagement between individuals’ moral standards and their unethical actions. Moral disengagement mechanisms allow people to perform unethical behaviors they normally do not approve or are against their moral standards, however consumer perspective in previous studies are either omitted or quite limited. Therefore, in this study, a general outlook to consumer behavior studies is presented to understand the role of moral disengagement in varying contexts. A general discussion and future research avenues are also presented at the end.

Keywords

moral disengagement, consumer psychology, unethical behavior

Tüketici Çalışmalarında Ahlaki Çözülmeye Genel Bir Bakış

Abstract

Ahlaki çözülme (ahlaki uzaklaşma/ahlaki kayıtsızlık/ahlaki geri çekilme), bireylerin kendilerini etik eylemlerden ayırdıkları ve pişmanlık ve öz-kınama göstermeden başkalarına karşı insanlık dışı, taciz edici, zarar verici veya dehşet verici eylemlere katıldıkları bir sosyo-bilişsel mekanizmalar bütünüdür. Önceki çalışmalar, bireylerin ahlaki standartları ile etik olmayan eylemleri arasındaki ahlaki çözülmenin önemli bir rolü olduğunu ortaya çıkarmıştır. Ahlaki çözülme mekanizmaları, insanların normalde onaylamadıkları veya ahlaki standartlarına aykırı olan etik olmayan davranışları gerçekleştirmelerine izin verir, ancak önceki çalışmalarda tüketici perspektifi ya ihmal edilmiş ya da oldukça sınırlı kalmıştır. Bu nedenle bu çalışmada, farklı durumlarda ahlaki çözülmenin rolünü anlamak için tüketici davranışı çalışmalarına genel bir bakış sunulmuştur. Çalışmanın sonunda genel bir tartışma ve gelecekteki araştırmalar için de tavsiyeler sunulmuştur.

Keywords

Ahlaki çözülme, tüketici psikolojisi, etik olmayan davranış

References

• Ang, C. S., Chan, N. N., & Singh, L. (2019). A comparison study of meat eaters and non-meat eaters on mind attribution and moral disengagement of animals. Appetite, 136, 80-85.
• Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Bandura, A. (1999). Moral disengagement in the preparation of inhumanities. Personal and Social Psychology Review, 3, 193–209.
• Bandura, A. (2002). Selective moral disengagement in the exercise of moral agency. Journal of Moral Education, 31(2), 101-119.
• Bastian, B., Loughnan, S., Haslam, N., & Radke, H. R. (2012). Don’t mind meat? The denial of mind to animals used for human consumption. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(2), 247-256.
• Buttlar, B., Rothe, A., Kleinert, S., Hahn, L., & Walther, E. (2021). Food for Thought: Investigating Communication Strategies to Counteract Moral Disengagement Regarding Meat Consumption. Environmental Communication, 15(1), 55-68.
• Cao, X., Khan, A. N., Zaigham, G. H., & Khan, N. A. (2019). The stimulators of social media fatigue among students: Role of moral disengagement. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 57(5), 1083-1107.
• Chen, J., Teng, L., & Liao, Y. (2018). Counterfeit luxuries: does moral reasoning strategy influence consumers’ pursuit of counterfeits?. Journal of Business Ethics, 151(1), 249-264.
• Chowdhury, R. M., & Fernando, M. (2014). The relationships of empathy, moral identity and cynicism with consumers’ ethical beliefs: The mediating role of moral disengagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(4), 677-694.
• Coombs, W. T., & Holladay, S. J. (2002). Helping crisis managers protect reputational assets: Initial tests of the situational crisis communication theory. Management Communication Quarterly, 16(2), 165-186.
• Detert, J. R., Treviño, L. K., & Sweitzer, V. L. (2008). Moral disengagement in ethical decision making: a study of antecedents and outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), 374.
• Egan, V., Hughes, N., & Palmer, E. J. (2015). Moral disengagement, the dark triad, and unethical consumer attitudes. Personality and Individual Differences, 76, 123-128.
• Eisend, M. (2019). Morality effects and consumer responses to counterfeit and pirated products: A meta-analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 154(2), 301-323.
• Gabbiadini, A., Riva, P., Andrighetto, L., Volpato, C., & Bushman, B. J. (2014). Interactive effect of moral disengagement and violent video games on self-control, cheating, and aggression. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5(4), 451-458.
• Graça, J., Calheiros, M. M., & Oliveira, A. (2014). Moral disengagement in harmful but cherished food practices? An exploration into the case of meat. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 27(5), 749-765.
• Graça, J., Oliveira, A., & Calheiros, M. M. (2015). Meat, beyond the plate. Data-driven hypotheses for understanding consumer willingness to adopt a more plant-based diet. Appetite, 90, 80-90.
• Gregory-Smith, D., Smith, A., & Winklhofer, H. (2013). Emotions and dissonance in ‘ethical’ consumption choices. Journal of Marketing Management, 29(11-12), 1201-1223.
• Harris, L. C., & He, H. (2019). Retail employee pilferage: A study of moral disengagement. Journal of Business Research, 99, 57-68.
• He, H., & Harris, L. (2014). Moral disengagement of hotel guest negative WOM: moral identity centrality, moral awareness, and anger. Annals of Tourism Research, 45, 132-151.
• Hodge, K., Hargreaves, E. A., Gerrard, D., & Lonsdale, C. (2013). Psychological mechanisms underlying doping attitudes in sport: Motivation and moral disengagement. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 35(4), 419-432.
• Hoe, L., Hogg, G., & Hart, S. (2003). Fakin’it: Counterfeiting and consumer contradictions. in European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 6, eds. Darach Turley and Stephen Brown, Provo, UT: Association for Consumer Research, 60-67.
• Hymel, S., Rocke-Henderson, N., & Bonanno, R. A. (2005). Moral disengagement: A framework for understanding bullying among adolescents. Journal of Social Sciences, 8(1), 1-11.
• Kapoor, P. S., Balaji, M. S., Maity, M., & Jain, N. K. (2021). Why consumers exaggerate in online reviews? Moral disengagement and dark personality traits. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 60, 102496, 1-13.
• Kilian, S., & Mann, A. (2020). When the damage is done: Effects of moral disengagement on sustainable consumption. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 20(1), 120-132.
• Krakowiak, K. M., & Tsay-Vogel, M. (2013). What makes characters’ bad behaviors acceptable? The effects of character motivation and outcome on perceptions, character liking, and moral disengagement. Mass Communication and Society, 16(2), 179-199.
• Lee, J. S., & Kwak, D. H. (2016). Consumers’ responses to public figures’ transgression: Moral reasoning strategies and implications for endorsed brands. Journal of Business Ethics, 137(1), 101-113.
• Lee, J. S., Kwak, D. H., & Braunstein-Minkove, J. R. (2016). Coping with athlete endorsers’ immoral behavior: Roles of athlete identification and moral emotions on moral reasoning strategies. Journal of Sport Management, 30(2), 176-191.
• Letić, J. (2019). Piracy statistics for 2020 – People would still download a car. https://dataprot.net/statistics/piracy-statistics/
• Lim, H., Cho, M., & Bedford, S. C. (2019). You Shall (Not) Fear: The effects of emotional stimuli in social media campaigns and moral disengagement on apparel consumers’ behavioral engagement. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal, 23(4), 628-644.
• Mazzeo, F., D’elia, F., & Raiola, G. (2018). Drugs in sport: Doping development and ethical analysis. Sport Science, 11(1), 106-112.
• Mitchell, V. W., Balabanis, G., Schlegelmilch, B. B., & Cornwell, T. B. (2009). Measuring unethical consumer behavior across four countries. Journal of Business Ethics, 88(2), 395-412.
• Moore, C. (2015). Moral disengagement. Current Opinion in Psychology, 6, 199-204.
• NRF (2020). Retail shrink totaled $61.7 billion in 2019 amid rising employee theft and shoplifting/ORC. https://nrf.com/media-center/press-releases/retail-shrink-totaled-617-billion-2019-amid-rising-employee-theft-and
• Olivero, N., Greco, A., Annoni, A. M., Steca, P., & Lowry, P. B. (2019). Does opportunity make the thief? Abilities and moral disengagement in illegal downloading. Behaviour & Information Technology, 38(12), 1273-1289.
• Ouvrein, G., De Backer, C. J., & Vandebosch, H. (2018). Online celebrity aggression: A combination of low empathy and high moral disengagement? The relationship between empathy and moral disengagement and adolescents' online celebrity aggression. Computers in Human Behavior, 89, 61-69.
• Ouvrein, G., Vandebosch, H., & De Backer, C. J. (2017). Celebrity critiquing: hot or not? Teen girls’ attitudes on and responses to the practice of negative celebrity critiquing. Celebrity Studies, 8(3), 461-476.
• Pozzoli, T., Gini, G., & Vieno, A. (2012). Individual and class moral disengagement in bullying among elementary school children. Aggressive Behavior, 38(5), 378-388.
• Runions, K. C., & Bak, M. (2015). Online moral disengagement, cyberbullying, and cyber-aggression. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 18(7), 400-405.
• Seidler, K. (2019). Shedding Light on Retail Theft Statistics. https://losspreventionmedia.com/shedding-light-on-retail-theft-statistics/ Sharma, N. (2020). Dark tourism and moral disengagement in liminal spaces. Tourism Geographies, 22(2), 273-297.
• Sharma, N., & Lal, M. (2020). Facades of morality: the role of moral disengagement in green buying behaviour. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 23(2), 217-239.
• Shu, L. L., Gino, F., & Bazerman, M. H. (2011). Dishonest deed, clear conscience: When cheating leads to moral disengagement and motivated forgetting. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37(3), 330-349.
• Stone, P., & Sharpley, R. (2008). Consuming dark tourism: A thanatological perspective. Annals of tourism Research, 35(2), 574-595.
• Sverdlik, N., & Rechter, E. (2020). Religious and secular roads to justify wrongdoing: How values interact with culture in explaining moral disengagement attitudes. Journal of Research in Personality, 87, 103981.
• Thatcher, A., & Matthews, M. (2012). Comparing software piracy in South Africa and Zambia using social cognitive theory. African Journal of Business Ethics, 6(1), 1-12.
• Thornberg, R., & Jungert, T. (2013). Bystander behavior in bullying situations: Basic moral sensitivity, moral disengagement and defender self-efficacy. Journal of Adolescence, 36(3), 475-483.
• Wang, S., & Kim, K. J. (2020). Consumer response to negative celebrity publicity: the effects of moral reasoning strategies and fan identification. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 29(1), 114-123.
• Wang, Y., Stoner, J. L., & John, D. R. (2019). Counterfeit luxury consumption in a social context: The effects on females’ moral disengagement and behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 29(2), 207-225.
• Venugopal, A., & Shukla, D. (2019). Identifying consumers' engagement with renewable energy. Business Strategy and the Environment, 28(1), 53-63.
• Vuleta, B. (2021). 23 Corrupting Piracy Statistics You Must Know in 2021. https://legaljobs.io/blog/piracy-statistics/#:~:text=9.,video%20piracy%20in%20the%20USA.&text=According%20to%20statistics%20on%20piracy,gross%20domestic%20product%20per%20year.
• Yang, L., Cai, G., Yong, S., & Shi, H. (2020). Moral identity: A mediation model of moral disengagement and altruistic attitude. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 48(7), 1-13.