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Personality and Social Psychology Review, Vol. 3, No. 3, 254-268 (1999)
DOI: 10.1207/s15327957pspr0303_8

Accounting for Evil and Cruelty: Is to Explain to Condone?

Arthur G. Miller

Department of Psychology, Miami University

Anne K. Gordon

Department of Psychology, Boise State University

Amy M. Buddie

Department of Psychology, Miami University

Analysts of evil and violence express the concern that to explain harmdoing may result in a condoning attitude toward perpetrators. An examination of research relevant to this hypothesis suggests that there are a variety of cognitive and affective processes that may produce a relatively condoning attitude toward perpetrators as a result of explaining their actions. Evidence from 3 exploratory studies supported the exonerating effects of explanations. Participants generating explicit explanations of harmdoing displayed a more condoning attitude toward perpetrators than did those forming impressions of perpetrators without first explaining the acts. Participants reading social-psychological explanations of harmdoing also judged the researcher to be more condoning of perpetrators than those reading dispositional explanations of the same behavior. Implications of these findings are discussed.

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