WarFighting effectively without committing war crimes

Combat troops must minimize the humanness of their enemies in order to kill them. They cannot be effective fighters if they are distracted by feelings of empathy for opponents. Indifference to the enemy, rather than loathing, however, may help prevent war crimes and provide troops with a better path back to healthy civilian lives, researchers at Case Western Reserve University propose.

A Case Western Reserve release reports that their hypothesis is based on new work showing how the brain operates when people objectify — that is, think of others as mere objects — or dehumanize, which entails seeing others as disgusting animals.

These two ways of suspending humanity are common. Think of being treated like a number by an insurance company or enduring a boss who deems subordinates incompetent baboons.

“Whether a person objectifies another or views another as a subhuman animal, he suspends his moral concern for that other person,” said Anthony Jack, assistant professor of cognitive science at Case Western Reserve and leader of the recently published neuroimaging study.

How the brain is activated, however, in each case is far different — the key to their premise.

To think of another as an object, people deactivate the empathetic network in their brain, and sometimes also activate the analytical network, depending on the complexity of their thought. This seesawing between the two networks is a natural function of the healthy brain. Jack’s earlier research shows the adult brain naturally cycles between the two networks at rest and chooses the appropriate network depending on the task at hand.

To dehumanize another as so animal-like as to evoke disgust causes both networks to become active. Rrather than leading to a good mix of empathy and analytics, however, this kind of thinking is used in antisocial, manipulative behavior and is most closely associated with mental illnesses, from depression to schizophrenia.

It is easy to do, though.

“It’s built in from infancy, and ranges in intensity from a mild feeling of revulsion when we see people eating something we don’t like…” Jack said.

“…Up to utter contempt and the conclusion that it’s OK to kill them,” said Shannon French, the Inamori Professor of Ethics and associate professor of philosophy at Case Western Reserve and a specialist in military ethics.

Jack and two former Case Western Reserve undergraduate students, Abigail J. Dawson, now a graduate student at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and Megan E. Norr, now at Georgetown University