Moral disengagement: Measurement and modification

To study how attitudes and social psychological processes influence decisio ns about war and peace, a 15-question scale was developed to measure moral disengagement in support for military action. In a survey of 128 secondary school students in the USA and Finland, the scale demonstrated acceptable r eliability (0.85-0.90) in different gender and national groups. US students were less morally engaged than Finnish students and males were less morall y engaged than females. Scale scores were strongly related to the students' support for US and NATO military actions in Iraq and Yugoslavia. In a seco nd study, 73 US university students participated in a brief, randomized exp eriment comparing the effects of contrasting communications on moral diseng agement in support for military action. After completing a pretest survey, the students were randomly assigned to persuasive communications favoring e ither moral disengagement or resistance to moral disengagement. Immediately after they received these communications, the students were given the oppo rtunity to give new answers to the survey questions about moral disengageme nt and approval of specific military actions. Analyses of pretest data conf irmed the reliability of the scale and its ability to predict opinions abou t the US and NATO bombing campaigns in Iraq and Yugoslavia. Analyses of cha nge scores showed increasing moral disengagement in one group and decreasin g moral disengagement in the other group, in accordance with the type of co mmunication that was provided between surveys. The groups also differed sig nificantly in their changes of opinions about the NATO bombing of Yugoslavi a and in their subsequent willingness to sign letters of praise or protest for their US Representative's congressional vote against the bombing.