How Immoral Behavior Becomes Common

Immoral behavior, whether it be killing innocents in war, genocide, discrimination against people of a certain skin color, gender, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation as well lawyers lying in court, institutions acting corruptly, or law enforcement officials protecting criminals has always fascinated me. How are people able to preform such horrible actions?

I remember hearing about an Iraqi-American who was being tortured while detained in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. She said her torturer paused for a bit to take a call from his wife. In a perfectly normal, even touching conversation they discussed plans for their daughter's upcoming birthday party. When he was done with the call, he resumed his torturing. 

Maybe the reason is that behavior is considered more moral the more common it is as a Swedish study has recently found.

Altruistic behaviour was considered more morally right than selfish, but both behaviours were judged to be more moral and less deserving of penalty if the majority exhibited them than if they were uncommon.

I suspect most people like to think that if they lived in 1930s Germany they would not have been an avid supporter of Hitler. They would not be the ones in the death camps killing innocent men, women and children. Maybe everyone should examine their present actions a bit more closely.

The core reason that immoral and criminal actions are so common in family court and why the perpetrators are able to get away with such horrible acts and crimes, is that these actions are common, even normal. They are ubiquitous.  It is just the way the system works as has been stated to me many times. It is time for the system to change.