An Overview of Moral Disengagement in Consumer Studies
Abstract
Moral Disengagement is a collection of socio-cognitive mechanisms by which individuals detach themselves from ethical actions and participate in inhumane, abusive, damaging, or horrifying acts toward others without showing remorse and self-censure. Previous studies revealed the significant role of moral disengagement between individuals’ moral standards and their unethical actions. Moral disengagement mechanisms allow people to perform unethical behaviors they normally do not approve or are against their moral standards, however consumer perspective in previous studies are either omitted or quite limited. Therefore, in this study, a general outlook to consumer behavior studies is presented to understand the role of moral disengagement in varying contexts. A general discussion and future research avenues are also presented at the end.