Research indicates that violence can become normalized through constant exposure.

People who have been dehumanized are more likely to become acceptable targets of violence.

The more victims of violence are blamed for their own suffering, the less others are motivated to intervene.

Like us, you may feel paralyzed in the face of the relentless images of violence we see every day. Suffering children, military occupations, the devastated neighborhoods, the cries of parents mourning their dead—these scenes haunt us. Whether it is happening in Palestine or Minneapolis, we are witnesses to suffering, and that witnessing takes a heavy toll.

Clearly, the devastating situations in the West Bank and Gaza and in Minneapolis differ on many grounds, not least of which is the absolute number of people killed and injured, and yet one can see psychological and systemic similarities between them. Though many Americans have participated in protests against both the genocide in Gaza and aggression by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis and other cities, perhaps a more common response is to helplessly look on in horror.

As scholars—one an anthropologist studying state-sanctioned violence, the other a political psychologist examining how blame shapes emotion—we understand why we collectively fail to respond to such extreme suffering. Those who commit atrocities need one thing above all: others' paralysis. Research in our fields shows they don't just hope for it—they manufacture it.

Normalization of Violence Toward Expendable Populations

Anthropological research has shown how our instinct to look away but also gawk at violent acts is often manipulated by political actors to render us both complicit and helpless.........

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