SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

I am taking a continuing education course through my alma mater, and one of the modules was on Cross Cultural Management. One of the sections was on ethics and culture. In that section, the lecturer presented the 8 Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement. I think these have a LOT to do with infidelity.

The 8 Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement:

1.) Moral Justification (the ends justify the means)

2.) Advantageous Comparison (comparing two unethical acts to minimize one of them)

3.) Euphemistic Labeling ("sanitizing" ones acts by using language that is less offensive)

4.) Minimizing/Misconstruing (denial and blame)

5.) Dehumanization (objectifying people)

6.) Attribution of Blame (shifting blame to another)

7.) Displacement of Responsibility (just following orders)

8.) Diffusion of Responsibility (everyone is doing it)

Thoughts? I found this fascinating.

Cat

This is a fantastic list. More direct examples of minimization and blameshifting.

Rugsweeping in the aftermath is a little bit left out.

Moral justification really should be "moral rationalization".

This was not presented as something having to do with infidelity; this was part of a class I was taking on Cross Cultural Management. I just thought it was very applicable to infidelity and illustrates the mental gymnastics that are universally employed to make the chosen unethical actions palatable.

Cat

I remember taking ethics waaay back in the day. This list sounds about right to me.

I like the idea of referring to the cheater's rationalizations as "moral disengagement"

That's an awesome list, thanks!

I stumbled onto this recently, while looking for something completely unrelated. It resonates with your post. you can google on Arthur Schopenhauer to read more. Your 8 items fall into the bucket of casuistry, by the way. I had to look up its definition (too).

Boundless compassion for all living beings is the surest and most certain guarantee of pure moral conduct, and needs no casuistry. Whoever is filled with it will assuredly injure no one, do harm to no one, encroach on no man's rights; he will rather have regard for every one, forgive every one, help every one as far as he can, and all his actions will bear the stamp of justice and loving-kindness.

First line often paraphrased as: Compassion is the basis of all morality.

Wow, I love this! All absolutely spot on but no 2 really strikes a chord with me. I remember one of the last conversations I had with XWH, before he admitted to having an affair. He said, if we ever split up, I’ll be there for you and the kids, you’ll always be my family (he remarried and fathered a child within two years...). Now, his own dad left the family never to be seen again, so in his wayward mind, so long as he stuck around, in any capacity, it wouldn’t be too bad would it?

[This message edited by Karmafan at 6:49 PM, December 18th (Friday)]