Practitioners learning palliative killing: The role of norms and empathy

There are many groups in society who are called on to kill legally, such as veterinarians and farmers (for animals), or soldiers and doctors (for war and euthanasia). In each case, for practitioners, research shows that this task is often both hard to learn and psychologically consequential. The current project approaches learning killing using social psychology and social neuroscience to understand how killing norms are learned and what the impact is on identity. It will generate new understandings of social influence around life and death controversies, informing scientists and policy makers, and helping practitioners and educators.