Table 1
Focus-group interview questions.
| Opening question | What do you think of the story we have just read? | |
| Introductory questions | What do you think about the young pregnant woman? | |
| Transition questions | How do you feel about the young pregnant woman’s attitude towards her husband and the estate agent? | |
| How do you feel about the young pregnant woman’s attitude towards the woman selling her house? | ||
| Moral Disengagement questions | Do you think the young pregnant woman is justified in not speaking up? (and why/how?) | Moral justification |
| Do you think the young pregnant woman can be held responsible for the uncomfortable business practices? (and why/how?) | Displacement of responsibility; diffusion of responsibility | |
| What do you think the consequences are of the young pregnant woman’s silence? (Could this be different if she spoke up?) | Disregard or distortion of consequences | |
| Do you think the woman who sells her house deserves the treatment she is getting from the young couple and the estate agent? (and why/how?) | Dehumanization | |
| Do you think the woman who sells the house is to blame for the uncomfortable business practices? Perhaps partly? (and why/how?) | Attribution of blame | |
| Do you think the young pregnant woman has less responsibility than her husband and the estate agent? (and why/how?) | Advantageous comparison | |
| Closing question | Finally, is there anything connected with your feelings towards the young pregnant woman that has not been discussed that you feel strongly about and would like to bring up now? |
Table 2
Coding scheme.
| Moral justification | Redefining immoral conduct into something neglectable or worthy |
| Euphemistic labeling | Language is used to minimize the immorality of the act |
| Advantageous comparison | Minimizing the severity of the immoral act by comparing it to something that is presumably more immoral or comparing the perpetrator of the immoral act to someone presumably more immoral |
| Displacement of responsibility | Someone or something else is held responsible for the immoral act |
| Diffusion of responsibility | Responsibility for the immoral act is diminished through division of labor |
| Disregard or distortion of consequences | Consequences of the immoral act are minimized, disbelieved, or ignored |
| Attribution of blame | Victim is blamed for what is inflicted upon them |
| Dehumanization | Language is used to portray the victim of the immoral act as sub-human |
| Empathy | Expressions of recognition, affect, and identification |