Provide examples of how Chris and Alison participated in each of the eight types

Question

Provide examples of how Chris and Alison participated in each of the eight types of moral disengagement

Moral justification: Framing harmful or morally wrong acts in the service of a greater good.         

Euphemistic labeling: Using pleasant language to rename harmful or ethically wrong acts to make them appear more benign.

Advantageous comparison: uses the contrast between a behavior and an even more reprehensible behavior to make the former seem innocuous.      

Distortion of consequences: minimizing, ignoring, or distorting the seriousness of the effects of one’s actions.    

Dehumanization: framing the victim of one’s actions as unworthy or moral regard and undeserving of basic human considerations.

Displacement of responsibility: attributing the responsibility for one’s actions to authority figures.           

Attribution of blame: assigning responsibility for one’s actions to the victims themselves.

Chris and Alison Weston (C)

Chris and Alison Weston acknowledge that they have been permanently changed by their experience. They lost their entire life savings, their home, and all but a few boxes of their possessions. Their daughters had to complete part of high school without their parents, and rebuilding professional lives with felony records has been far from easy. At the same time, the Westons believe they've been given an opportunity to rebuild their lives. In this final part of the case, Chris and Alison reflect on what this experience has meant to their personal growth, their marriage, and their legacy.

Chris: When I was in prison I sent Alison a letter asking for divorce. I was angry and blamed her for much of what happened. But during the time I was incarcerated, l went through a lot of introspection, and I made the call pretty early on that no matter how long I was there, my path wouldn't cross this way again. And I think that experience, speaking for me personally, took me to a place where I recognized that not being completely clear with ourselves and with one another really led to a lot of the problems we had.

The way I can sum this up is that I was freer in a federal prison than I was in the outside world. I made a commitment to myself that I was going to be very transparent , starting with myself I decided I was going to share things about me that I had been hesitant to share in my marriage and in my family life. So when I got out, we sat down and talked through the past. I said, "OK, let's clear the deck and make sure we understand everything about both of us now. And, if we're willing to move forward from that -­ wonderful. If not, then we need to make a change. Now we are both committed to living authentic and transparent lives, to being open and honest in our relationship and in everything we do.

The Westons acknowledge that most people cannot imagine ever finding themselves in a similar situation. However, they believe that the first step on the road to their story can be as easy as feeling one's choices in a difficult situation are more limited than they are.

Chris: No one thinks this will happen to them. You think when I was walking across the stage at my "top ten" college getting my degree that I thought, "Geez, someday I'm going to go to prison. I can't wait. I'm aspiring to that"? Maybe Alison and I are just uniquely flawed thinkers living in our own little bubble, but I don t think so. Nobody, nobody is immune to this, not one person. Your history, your degrees, the schools you attended, does not protect you from this. No matter where you came from and whatever your upbringing, you 're never immune from this path. People think of the typical white collar criminal, "They meant to do it, and they're greedy." I 'm not saying that that's not part of it. What I am saying is that it wasn't the overall driving force. It's more about how you get good at the things that you practice. If you practice small, barely noticeable inappropriate behavior, it becomes easier to do.

So the small missteps are huge -- they are what you really have to watch out for. Bending expense reports a little bit, or bending policies in the corporation that aren't necessarily right. You do that once, you do it a couple of times, it just gets easier. Then the bigger things you do become easier decisions. I became used to doing things this way because that's how I was rewarded, and that's how it worked . And there weren't any consequences –not for a long time.

Alison: When you get to the place where you fee l you have no choice, that 's when you know you do have a choice. Unless you acknowledge that choice, you're giving somebody else more power over you to control the situation. What is it in us that drives us to say, "I don’t have the ability to do the right thing here"? Because we all have choices. Always. Not sometimes, always.

The Westons have reevaluated what is important to them and how they want to live. They now actively maintain practices in their lives to ensure they do not return to old patterns of thinking and behaving, including having "accountability partners" - individuals who they trust to let them know if they are acting in ways that are contrary to their values of truth and transparency.

Chris: The people that you surround yourself with, and the ability you have to vocalize disagreement about things that don't seem right, is just critical. I knew I didn't feel right in certain circumstances. I knew in my heart, "This is probably not right, and I'm doing some things here that are bending what should be done," but I did n’t respond appropriately to that. I let it go, and it got bigger. I needed to have the guts to have those hard conversat ions, where you talk it through when something just doesn’t feel right. But you need to practice having those hard conversations from the get-go.

Alison: I make sure that I'm not surrounded by sycophants, and that I have a diverse set of accountability partners. You need strong mirrors around you that you trust and respect that will give you honest feedback, even tough feedback. I think that's how you grow.

As the Westons reflect on the biggest lessons they learned through this process, some simple observations about how to avoid these dangers emerge.

Alison: Before, the main stress in my life was always feeling that I had to keep up with the people around me. I didn't feel I could be accepted for who I was, and my self- worth was in what I did versus who 1 was. I couldn't be at rest. Today, I'm at peace with where I am and who I am.

People need to get so comfortable in their own skin to be able to say, "My identity is greater than this jo b." You have to be comfortable in your own skin to live consistently with your values. You need to have a level of comfort with yourself to be able to say, "If that Board doesn't like me or the decisions I want to make, they can fire me."

If I am ever really uneasy about any decision, I will take five minutes, take ten. I take whatever time that's needed to insure that my decision is the absolute best decision for me and I don 't do things that I feel compromises my values, my integrity. You get one shot with your reputation. There's no margin for error because you can never go back. It is the greatest gift we have.

Chris: The impression I leave after I'm gone is important to me now. What is my legacy? I no longer believe that the world operates according to my rules. The way Alison and I focus ourselves now is a daily commitment to live right. The process by which I make a decision now is based on an entirely different set of rules. When I am faced with an important or high impact decision I try to imagine my response and actions in plain sight on the Internet for everyone to see.

My thinking has largely moved from short-term gratification to long term impact. I don't try to please other people for the sake of their perception of me. If the decision is ethically and morally sound, what others think or how it makes me feel is secondary. I also to; to live within the legal norms of the culture I live in, though those can be secondary, quite honestly, because a lot of stuff in this country; is so unethical it's not funny. But I've learned to recognize that.

Explanation / Answer

Moral justification

Chris and Alison claim and acknowledgement that their prison life experiences have changed their life for good. It had made them to learn that they need to be transparent and clear in their life and maintain their values at any cost.

Euphemistic labeling

Chris defends his offences and dishonesty by calling it small missteps that has led him to bigger mistakes. Thus, the dishonesty was labeled as small missteps, and was projected as benign act.

Advantageous comparison

Chris claims that nobody is immune to deviant behaviors. He compares his good upbringing and education level to defend his claim, and states that even, these could not keep him from committing the offence. The smaller offences that he did and the perfection he gained through them led him to commit bigger offences.

Distortion of consequences

Chris states that the rewards that he got from the dishonest behavior prevented him from thinking of the consequences of his actions, and acted as motivation for his illegal action. Also, Chris states that he didn't hear his inner voice's warning that he was committing something wrong.

Dehumanization

Alison blames the people around them and calls them sycophants for not giving them honest feedback of their actions.

Displacement of responsibility

Alison places responsibility to board members to fire her if they feel she is not correct. Thus, she displaces her moral responsibility on others and states that in her view she is correct, and now it's the responsibility of others to judge what is wrong and right.

Attribution of blame

Chris states that he has recognized that there are lot of stuff that are unethical, he has learned to recognize them. Hence, the decision that he makes doesn't need people's appreciation and approval, and cultural and legal norms of the society are secondary for him due to this widespread immorality.

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