A growing body of research has examined third-party reactions to abusive supervision, primarily emphasizing emotion-based mechanisms. However, cognition-based mechanisms remain underexplored. Drawing from vicarious moral cognition perspectives, we propose two parallel mechanisms—vicarious moral cleansing and vicarious moral disengagement—that explain how observed abusive supervision affects third-party coworker-directed helping, particularly among individuals with strong relational identification with their supervisor. Conducting a multi-wave, multi-source field study, we tested our model and found support for our hypotheses. Specifically, employees with high relational identification experience vicarious moral cleansing, characterized by a sense of moral credit deficit after observing abusive supervision. This drives them to engage in increased helping behaviors toward coworkers. Conversely, these employees also exhibit vicarious moral disengagement, justifying and rationalizing the supervisor’s abusive actions, which subsequently reduces their coworker-directed helping behaviors. Our research underscores the tension and ambivalence third parties may experience in terms of their cognitive and behavioral reactions to observed abusive supervision, particularly for those who view their relationship with the abusive supervisor as central to their self-concept.
