{"id":2305,"date":"2018-12-04T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2018-12-04T14:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=2305"},"modified":"2018-12-03T21:14:25","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T03:14:25","slug":"distant-war-and-selective-empathy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2018\/12\/04\/distant-war-and-selective-empathy\/","title":{"rendered":"Distant War and Selective Empathy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo of two children standing between white tents in a refugee camp. Photo by Mustafa Khayat, Flickr CC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The murder of journalist <\/span>Jamal Khashoggi<\/span><\/a> sparked criticism of Saudi Arabia across the globe. But a recent <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/a> article brings forward a striking paradox \u2013 this single incident has drawn far more outrage than Saudi Arabia\u2019s large-scale intervention in Yemen. Over the past three years, thousands of civilians have been killed, half of Yemen\u2019s population is at <\/span>risk of famine<\/span><\/a>, and over 20 million people need humanitarian aid. This conflict is largely caused by Saudi Arabia\u2019s intervention, like <\/span>attacks<\/span><\/a> on civilian infrastructure and continual deadly <\/span>air strikes<\/span><\/a>. These factors caused the United Nations to label the violence in Yemen as 2018\u2019s <\/span>worst humanitarian crisis<\/span><\/a>. Yet in the United States, this conflict has received only limited attention. Research can help to explain the lack of coverage of this crisis and why distant conflict may result in selective empathy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Depictions of violence play an important role in understanding distant conflict. Places with a history of violence, like Afghanistan or Syria, become linked with this conflict \u2013 violence may become understood as timeless or inevitable. Individuals in conflict zones are then minimized into stereotypes, like tribal savages or helpless, incapable victims.<\/h5>\n