Is Moral Judgement Maturity Merely the Opposite of Self-Serving Cognitive Distortions or Moral Disengagement?

ABSTRACT

Are moral judgement maturity and self-serving cognitive distortions or moral disengagement merely opposites, as recently claimed? Self-serving cognitive distortions and moral disengagement constitute (more or less interchangeable) neutralization techniques; they stem from the same theoretical background and refer to the same cognitive processes. In contrast, a distinct theoretical background provides the context for moral judgement. To examine the empirical relationships between the constructs, a systematic search was conducted, encompassing 17 studies from 8 countries. Moral judgement and self-serving cognitive distortions or moral disengagement related inversely only moderately in studies of offenders (externalizing behavioural disorders) and non-offenders. Moreover, self-serving cognitive distortions and moral disengagement correlated much more strongly with externalizing behavioural disorders than did moral judgement. Also differing were relationships with demographic and other variables such as empathy. We conclude that both moral judgement and self-serving cognitive distortions or moral disengagement should be assessed and utilized in studies and intervention programmes addressing externalizing behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Moral reasoning
• moral judgement
• moral disengagement
• cognitive distortions
• externalizing behaviour

Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. M.G.C.J. Beerthuizen and the anonymous reviewers of this journal for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare they do not have any financial interest in this study.