Fighting effectively without committing war crimes

scientific descriptions explaining a working heart, brain patterns and a psychological phenomenon did take up analytic reasoning resources.

Animalistic dehumanizing produced high levels of activity in both the social and the analytic reasoning network.

“Our evidence shows that objectification frees up mental resources, whereas animalistic dehumanization uses up all our resources, both empathetic and analytic,” Jack said.

Objectifying can be useful in everyday life, he explained. “We want surgeons to think of a person as a biological machine that they are cutting into to fix, rather than being distracted by emotions.” He continued, “But they also have to switch back to thinking of the person as a human so they have a genuine appreciation of what the patient needs and cares about. Studies show this sort of empathetic connection is also critically important for optimal outcomes.”

In the military, “We should train our troops to objectify the enemy for the purposes of combat,” French said. “Because we believe this is the only mode that frees their cognitive resources to deal with the strategic and performance demands of intense combat situations.” She was quick to add, “However, we also need to counterbalance a powerful psychological tendency to dehumanize the enemy.”

“One way we can do that is by training troops to think analytically in response to specific threats, so they objectify in response to a circumstance rather than a person,” Jack explained.

“Another way to limit dehumanizing of the people involved in a conflict is to increase discipline around the issue and also improve cultural understanding,” French said. “That is also useful for other strategic purposes, such as peacekeeping and rebuilding.”

Americans have been fighting in two wars while at the same time trying to build positive relations with civilians in the conflict regions. This often requires the brains of our troops to switch quickly between analytic and empathetic modes, French said. “And the vast majority of our troops manage this amazingly well.” Dehumanizing the enemy, on the other hand, creates a vicious cycle of hatred that prolongs the conflict and can cause troops to underestimate their enemies through lack of respect.

Indications are strong that those involved in headline-grabbing violations of the rules of war, including jailers mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib, U.S. troops urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters, and Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who admitted that he murdered 16 Afghan civilians — mostly women and children — were using animalistic dehumanization.

Not only were the killings