Abstract
This presentation focuses on the social perspective of psychological basis of ag-gression. It presents the work of Steven Pinker (The better angel of our nature) and describes the reasons for reduction of aggression in today's society.
It com-bines this work with studies of James Flynn focusing on changes in intellect within the 2oth century. It emphasizes mechanisms of moral disengagement (Bandura, 1991) and follows the work of Celia Moore et al. (2012).
This concept defines eight basic mechanisms of moral disengagement: Moral Justification, Euphemistic Labelling, Advantageous Comparison, Displacement of Responsi-bility, Distortion of Consequences, Dehumanization, and Attribution of Blame. This presentation introduces a psychometric study and shows the use of moral disengagement mechanisms on practical examples.
It suggests the application of the Czech version of this scale in practice. We assume that the question of moral disengagement, denial of responsibility and specific mechanisms introduced by Bandura may play a crucial role in difficult life situations.
Its importance may be well seen in acceptance processes, rejection of specific behavior, thinking of others or their own thinking. We be-lieve that understanding these underlining mechanisms may be significant for opinion cultivation, debates, advancements, and for the insight into other forms of unethical behavior.