Mind Denial of Palestinian Civilians, but Not Hamas Terrorists, Predicts Support for Violence

There are competing predictions about the role of denying mental and emotional states to enemies in predicting support for violence against them. Classical views suggest that "mind denial" of any group, including enemies, should reduce moral inhibitions against harming them, enabling violence to occur. However, recent research argues that mind denial increases support for instrumental aggression, wherein perpetrators hold no animus toward potential victims but harm them to achieve some other end, but mind denial does not increase support for moralistic aggression, wherein perpetrators wish to harm enemies whom they think morally deserve it. Here, we replicate prior results in the context of an active conflict: Israeli drone strikes in Gaza. We find that mind denial of Palestinian civilians killed as collateral damage predicts support for drone strikes, but mind denial of Hamas terrorists does not predict support.