Drone Policy (2/3): Understanding The Issues

Moral Disengagement and Euphemistic Language

Preeminent psychology researcher Dr. Albert Bandura notes that the aforementioned psychological processes are far from the only forms of moral disengagement apparent in military operations. For Bandura, moral disengagement encompasses the personal, behavioral, and environmental processes by which individuals enable themselves to violate their own moral norms while feeling ok about doing so.

The effects of depersonalization 

For example, most of us would feel guilt or remorse if we stole money out of someone’s hand. But it is a lot easier to justify pirating music online from “file sharing” sites because we can more readily convince ourselves that nobody is really being harmed by our actions. The depersonalized nature of online interactions, the abstract nature of the victim, and many other factors contribute to why the latter scenario seems more morally ambiguous than the personal and concrete nature of snatching a purse or wallet.

Agent-less vs Agentic phrases

Another mechanism of moral disengagement found in both civilian and military contexts is the use of euphemistic language. In his new book, “Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm and Live with Themselves,” Bandura examines the literature on euphemistic language and how it is often used to “depersonalize doers from harmful activities,” (2016).  Research has shown that the acceptability of certain actions is influenced by what those actions are called, and using sanitized, agent-less, and technical terms instead of clear-cut, agentic, and common phrases enables us to do things we may not be comfortable with otherwise. “File-sharing” seems more justifiable than stealing in the same way that “servicing the target,” “visiting a sight” and “coercive diplomacy” seem more justifiable than bombing.