"Blind loyalty? When Group Loyalty Makes Us See Evil or Engage in It" Article Analysis

According to John Angus Hildreth, Francesca Gino, and Max Bazerman in the article “ Blind loyalty? When group loyalty makes us see evil or engage in it” , loyalty is a pledge of truth to oneself and others. However, the authors argue that the measures of loyalty individuals identify with determine whether they will engage in evil or good. The question posed by the article is how does loyalty which is touted as an ethical principle that guides human behavior lead some people into engaging in evil deeds such as corruption, cheating, and conspiracy to deceive among other evils. In the article the authors begin by acknowledging that people primed with loyalty cheated less that those who were not concerned about being loyal to their friends or family fraternities ( Hildreth, Gino & Bazerman, 2016) . However, when competition is brought into the table, the desire to please these fraternities encourages a culture of cheating and the conspiracy to do evil. The question that comes into mind is how they afford to do so. 

There are various reasons that are articulated in the article. Although competition and the desire to succeed either as an individual or as a group may influence immoral behaviors, competition is not the sole purview of immorality. As Hildreth, Gino and Bazerman (2016) assert, when people hold strong reciprocity beliefs, they may be inquisitive of engaging in criminality and unethical issues for the purpose of pleasing their friends and family members. Since the study established that true loyalty is anchored on ethical behaviors, competition moderated the path which individual members of a group took as far as cheating is concerned. It is only when a group of people has unclear goals that they are guided by blind loyalty. The consequences of blind loyalty are evil doings that are meant to create fake identities with the aim of pleasing friends, family members or other groups of people, individuals interact with. 

Reference  

Hildreth, J. A. D., Gino, F., & Bazerman, M. (2016). Blind loyalty? When group loyalty makes us see evil or engage in it.  Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes ,  132 ,16-36.