Processing Atrocities Like The Paris Attacks, From Afar

“What we should be using as a measure is what we call emotional distance. It has to do with what you hear in the news and the media, and how relevant it is to you, and to what extent you identify. There’s not a general rule to that. … If the victims are people who belong to your social group, who you identify with, it’s one thing. Everyone makes his own emotional distance from traumatic events. Atrocities shortcut the emotional distance – they are universally perceived as something so incongruous that you keep thinking about it.”