‘Kill or be killed’

This chapter examines the complex synergies exerted by environmental, psychological, and social factors in moral decision-making in wartime contexts. Mechanisms such as moral disengagement, including enemy dehumanization and diffusion of responsibility, coupled with the influence of authority and group pressure, engender processes of dissociation that bias moral judgments and risk perception. Studies such as the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Experiment are compared to illustrate how individuals may act against their ethical values within a specific situational context. Additionally, the role of media communication and ideology in shaping collective identities and legitimizing immoral behaviors is discussed. This multidisciplinary analysis offers a profound understanding of the inherent psychological substrates that shape human behavior in extreme situations within armed conflict contexts. Furthermore, our proposal underscores the importance of understanding the common factors that recurrently emerge in such situations, significantly influencing moral behaviors. This conceptual framework holds the potential to mitigate tendencies toward violent and immoral actions in wartime contexts, as knowledge serves as the initial step in developing any preventive measures.