From “Seven Deadly Sins: The Biology of Being Human” by Guy Leschziner
Our ability to put ourselves in someone else’s position, to empathise on an emotional level, is fundamental to kindness and the curbing of cruelty. Undermining this human trait, of empathy, is core to the ability to inflict violence, to take up arms. The easiest way of achieving this is through dehumanising the enemy, of othering them; we empathise most with those who we see as similar to ourselves.