The psychological effect of drone killing on operators remains empirically unresolved.

Evidence

We are thus faced, for the moment, with two hypotheses regarding the psychic life of drone operators: either this weaponry creates insensitive killers, or else it produces a mental process that involves being tormented by guilt, potentially to the degree of inducing neurosis. In practice, the truth about any given individual probably falls somewhere between those two poles. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 391

Categorization

• QUESTION: Which pole dominates in real drone operator populations? The empirical test the author calls for in paragraph 389 is still open.
• XREF: connects to: Drone technology produces a combined morale-buffering effect on operators; The media narrative of traumatized drone pilots has no empirical basis.; A diagnosis of perpetration-induced stress is needed for drone operators. (+5 more)

Related

• A diagnosis of perpetration-induced stress is needed for drone operators. (similarity 0.88)
• A few hundred drone operators’ moral feelings can be dismissed as irrelevant (similarity 0.88)
• Drone psychopathology lies in produced compartmentalization, not operator trauma (similarity 0.88)
• Drone technology produces a combined morale-buffering effect on operators (similarity 0.87)
• Drone technology structurally rules out existing trauma diagnoses. (similarity 0.87)
• The media narrative of traumatized drone pilots has no empirical basis. (similarity 0.86)
• Drone design produces a strong moral buffering effect on operators (similarity 0.86)
• Drone operations constitute a pure case of perpetration-induced traumatic stress. (similarity 0.85)
• Media accounts of drone pilot trauma lack corroborating evidence (similarity 0.84)
• A drone operator killed more people than he thought himself capable of (similarity 0.82)
• Assumed drone-operator trauma serves to legitimize them as real soldiers (similarity 0.81)
• Drone technology severs visual discrimination from physical proximity to targets. (similarity 0.81)
• Drone technology produces a strong moral buffering effect that offsets visual proximity to victims. (similarity 0.81)
• Media emphasis on drone pilot trauma legitimizes them as classic soldiers (similarity 0.80)
• Faceless blurry drone imagery reduces moral resistance to killing (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Drone design produces a strong moral buffering effect on operators #qualifies (0.70) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 407
• A few hundred drone operators’ moral feelings can be dismissed as irrelevant #complicates (0.60) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 627