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— CH. 1 · ANCIENT ROOTS AND MODERN TERMS —

Moral blindness

~3 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
6 sections

  • Socrates spoke of moral intellectualism while Plato described emotions clouding moral judgements. Aristotle first used the term ethics for the field of moral philosophy in ancient Greece. Early spiritual leaders like Buddha and Confucius discussed moral behaviour in their discourses though they were more prescriptive. Western philosophers such as Descartes, Locke, Hume, and Kant contributed to modern moral judgement during the 17th and 18th century. G.E. Moore wrote about the indefinability of good in his book Principia Ethica. Normative ethics seeks to define the rightness or wrongness of an action through opposing views. Deontology states morality depends on rules while consequentialism focuses on results.

  • Adolf Eichmann was a German-Austrian Nazi soldier responsible for deporting Jews to extermination camps. His capture and trial occurred in 1961 with many observers noting his ordinary nature. Hannah Arendt covered the trial for The New Yorker and coined the phrase banality of evil. During the proceedings Eichmann showed no remorse nor did he accept responsibility. He claimed to have done what he was told to do without understanding the ethical weight. This event catalyzed research into how ordinary people commit terrible acts under authority. The concept gained popularity after World War II events particularly the Holocaust.

  • Stanley Milgram conducted obedience studies between 1961 and 1962 to answer questions about following orders. Subjects thought they were administering electric shocks to another participant who was actually a confederate. These experiments asked if millions of accomplices in the Holocaust were just following instructions. Sixty-five percent of subjects pulled a switch that would administer the maximum of 450 volts. Philip Zimbardo ran the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971 using male undergraduate students from Stanford University. Participants assigned as guards or prisoners internalized their roles and obeyed external orders. The study demonstrated how good people behave in pathological ways alien to their nature.

  • Jean Piaget put forth his theory of cognitive development in 1936 which Lawrence Kohlberg developed further. Kohlberg created three stages of moral development published in 1958. James Rest published his Four Component Model of Morality in 1982 identifying four distinct stages. These stages include moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral implementation. Competence in one stage did not imply competence in another so failure could occur anywhere. This model conveyed complexity behind moral behaviour contrasting with observed behavior patterns. Behavioral ethics emerged to study how people react to moral dilemmas beyond simple cognitive frameworks.

  • Moral blindness has been identified as a concern within business organization structures and legal systems. Research looks at corporate transgressions and business ethics alongside moral disengagement at work. Lawyers often face issues regarding moral blindness especially when it comes to professional conduct. Some research refers to psychopathy being a specific kind of moral blindness though findings remain inconclusive. The field expanded to study broader ideas such as ethical fading where concerns fade during decision making. Ethical erosion describes the gradual decline of ethics over time while blind spots involve overestimating ability to act ethically.

  • Albert Bandura argued that moral disengagement arises from individual situational or institutional forces. Mechanisms like diffusion of responsibility and disconnected division of tasks lead to immoral behavior. Recent research developed the concept of bounded ethicality describing unintentional unethical behavior. People can be unintentionally unethical when judging others' behavior as well as their own actions. They may realize this only on further reflection after the fact occurs. Studies examine social norms and how we view others' unethical behavior in daily life. This framework helps explain why good people fail to see the ethical aspects of decisions they make.

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Concepts in ethics

Common questions

What is moral blindness and how does it affect decision making?

Moral blindness is a temporary inability to see the ethical aspects of decisions. It allows ordinary people to commit terrible acts under authority without understanding the ethical weight.

Who coined the phrase banality of evil regarding Adolf Eichmann's trial in 1961?

Hannah Arendt covered the trial for The New Yorker and coined the phrase banality of evil during the proceedings. She observed that Eichmann showed no remorse nor did he accept responsibility while claiming to have done what he was told to do.

When did Stanley Milgram conduct his obedience studies on following orders between 1961 and 1962?

Stanley Milgram conducted obedience studies between 1961 and 1962 to answer questions about following orders. Sixty-five percent of subjects pulled a switch that would administer the maximum of 450 volts.

How many stages are there in James Rest's Four Component Model of Morality published in 1982?

James Rest published his Four Component Model of Morality in 1982 identifying four distinct stages. These stages include moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral implementation.

What is the difference between ethical fading and ethical erosion in business ethics research?

Ethical fading describes how concerns fade during decision making while ethical erosion refers to the gradual decline of ethics over time. Blind spots involve overestimating ability to act ethically within these frameworks.

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All sources

31 references cited across the entry

  1. 1journalEthical BlindnessGuido Palazzo et al. — 2012-09-01
  2. 2journalNobody is as Blind as Those Who Cannot Bear to See: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on the Management of Emotions and Moral BlindnessJ. J. de Klerk — 2017-04-01
  3. 3journalEichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil.Frederic S. Burin et al. — March 1964
  4. 4bookBecoming Eichmann: rethinking the life, crimes, and trial of a "desk murderer"2006-10-01
  5. 5journalStanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyDavid D. Oberhelman — Emerald Group Publishing Limited — 2001-06-01
  6. 6citationJapanese Neo-Confucian PhilosophyJohn A. Tucker — Oxford University Press — 2015-02-03
  7. 7citationHume's Moral PhilosophyRachel Cohon — Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University — 2018
  8. 8conferenceMoral BlindnessGarcía Moriyon — 2011
  9. 9citationReligion and MoralityJohn Hare — Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University — 2019
  10. 10journalThe Alleged Indefinability of GoodBarton C. Cooper — 1959-01-01
  11. 11journalBehavioral Ethics: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Moral Judgment and DishonestyMax H. Bazerman et al. — December 2012
  12. 12bookThe evolution of moral understandingHallpike, C. R. (Christopher Robert) — Prometheus Research Group — 2004
  13. 13journalThe independence of James Rest's components of morality: evidence from a professional ethics curriculum studyDi You et al. — 2013-11-01
  14. 14webEichmann Trial
  15. 15journalMilgram's obedience to authority experiments: Origins and early evolutionNestar John Charles Russell — 2011
  16. 16bookConscience : the duty to obey and the duty to disobeySchulweis, Harold M. — Jewish Lights Pub — 2009
  17. 17journalUnderstanding behavior in the Milgram obedience experiment: The role of personality, situations, and their interactions.Thomas Blass — March 1991
  18. 18journalRevisiting the Stanford prison experiment, again: Examining demand characteristics in the guard orientationJared Bartels — 2019-11-02
  19. 19journalMoral Disengagement in the Perpetration of InhumanitiesAlbert Bandura — 1999-08-01
  20. 20journalSelective Moral Disengagement in the Exercise of Moral AgencyAlbert Bandura — 2002-06-01
  21. 21journalUnderstanding ordinary unethical behavior: why people who value morality act immorallyFrancesca Gino — 2015-06-01
  22. 22citationBounded Ethicality as a Psychological Barrier to Recognizing Conflicts of InterestDolly Chugh et al. — Cambridge University Press — 2005-04-18
  23. 23journalContagion and Differentiation in Unethical Behavior: The Effect of One Bad Apple on the BarrelFrancesca Gino et al. — 2009-03-01
  24. 24journalSee No Evil: When We Overlook Other People's Unethical BehaviorFrancesca Gino et al. — 2008
  25. 25journalCorporate Transgressions through Moral DisengagementAlbert Bandura et al. — 2000
  26. 26journalInvestigating the Effects of Moral Disengagement and Participation on Unethical Work BehaviorAdam Barsky — 2011-06-16
  27. 27citationWhy good intentions are often not enough: The potential for ethical blindness in legal decision-makingKatherine Hall — Routledge — 2010
  28. 28journalPrescriptions for Ethical Blindness: Improving Advocacy for Indigent Defendants in Criminal CasesTigran Eldred — 2012-09-28
  29. 29journalPsychopathy as moral blindness: a qualifying exploration of the blindness-analogy in psychopathy theory and researchRasmus Rosenberg Larsen — 2020-09-01
  30. 30bookBlind SpotsMax H. Bazerman et al. — Princeton University Press — 2011-12-31
  31. 31journalEthical Fading: The Role of Self-Deception in Unethical BehaviorAnn E. Tenbrunsel et al. — June 2004