Nonetheless, hazing is not only a public health concern. Various studies have indicated that Greek Life membership, and probably the hazing inherent in that membership, has a negative impact on a number of cognitive and academic outcomes for first-year college students, including lower levels of critical thinking, reading apprehension and mathematical skill. Not only that, but many first-year students also experience higher levels of academic dishonesty, and lower levels of moral judgment and moral action.
Various researches have suggested that numerous environmental factors can affect the correlation between moral judgment and moral action (Bandura, 99). These environmental factors are the core of the moral disengagement theory created by Albert Bandura. Banduras theory suggests that moral standards are created over time through socialization and exposure to various ideas regarding right and wrong. These standards do not, however, function as fixed internal controls. Rather, Bandura suggests, the power of taking moral action requires what he refers to as self-censure, a means by which individuals examine the consequences of their actions based on their internalized moral standards. In polarizing moral disengagement from moral judgment, Bandura suggests that traditional measures of moral judgment forget to take into consideration the process by which individuals apply moral standards to their day-to-day lives, and propose that moral reasoning is rendered
into action through self-regulatory procedures (Bandura et al., 996). Bandura has recognized 8 procedures by which people will disengage from these moral self-sanctions and engage in behaviors that would otherwise violate their moral standards. The environment and social atmosphere surrounding an individual can trigger one, or all, of these procedures in a way that allows people to disengage from their morality and more easily commit an action that goes against their ethics (Bandura, 2002). As stated by Bandura (2002), it requires conducive social conditions rather than monstrous people to produce atrocious deeds. Given appropriate social conditions, decent, ordinary people can do extraordinarily cruel things. A study done with college students engaging in hazing activities found that these individuals perceive a number of positive outcomes associated with college hazing but only minimal negative ramifications. Students often list a number of positive outcomes of college hazing and try to justify the behavior. This includes but is not limited to the building of group unity, and creating a sense of accomplishment. In addition, these students often use rationalization as a way of avoiding to report hazing activities to authorities. Such responses as it made me a better man, and the sense of accomplishment afterwards outweighed the pain or stress felt during the activities were repeatedly used as rationalizations for not reporting college hazing activities.