Moral Decoupling

In psychology, “Moral Decoupling” refers to the (often subconscious) process of mentally separating a person’s behavior from their work.

So if a politician passes a bunch of laws a group of voters like, but then kills someone in cold blood, those voters might be inclined to morally decouple the murder this politician committed from the job they’ve done. They may even justify voting for that politician again in the future, because, well, they like the laws that were passed even if they don’t like the politician’s behavior beyond those accomplishments.

This same process allows customers to justify buying goods that they know or suspect are being produced by people in modern slavery conditions, or knock-offs that are cheaper (and thus attainable), but which maybe hurt the designer who’s work has been knocked-off.