Situational Context Moderates the Relationship Between Moral Disengagement and Aggression

Objective: In this study, we examined whether dispositional moral disengagement is associated with a specific act of laboratory-based aggression. No study, to our knowledge, has yet demonstrated this simple, yet necessary, link. We also investigated whether situational context moderated this relationship. Method: A university sample of 181 participants completed the Moral Disengagement Scale and the Hot Sauce Paradigm in an experimental design. Participants allocated hot sauce for consumption by a fictional partner who had insulted them (experimental conditions) or not (control condition). In two of three experimental conditions, participants were given instructions incorporating statements of diffusion of responsibility and displacement of responsibility; the third experimental condition measured baseline aggression in a Revengeonly condition, without additional moral disengagement statements. Results: Dispositional moral disengagement was correlated with behavioral aggression, but only in the Revenge-only condition. This relationship disappeared in the Diffusion-primed and Displacement-primed conditions, demonstrating that situational context moderates the relationship between moral disengagement and aggression. Conclusions: Moral disengagement is indeed associated with specific acts of interpersonal aggression. However, while moral disengagement may play a substantial role in predicting aggression, the situational context must be taken into account. Our data suggest that situational characteristics can disrupt the association between trait moral disengagement and aggression, and this may be an avenue for future prevention research.