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Knowing and Not Knowing: Implicatory Denial and Defence Mechanisms in Response to Human Rights Abuses

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Psychosocial Imaginaries

Part of the book series: Studies in the Psychosocial ((STIP))

Abstract

The belief that ‘if only people knew what was going on they would do something’, is contradicted daily by the ample evidence that, when it comes to human rights violations, knowledge is not a guarantee for action. Many have tried to make sense of public passivity from the fields of Sociology (e.g. Geras, 1999; Boltanski, 1999), Psychology (e.g. Latane and Darley, 1970, 1976; Staub, 1989, 2003), and Media and Communications (e.g. Tester, 2001; Chouliaraki, 2006, 2012). The knowledge produced is rich and enlightening but also somewhat fragmented and confined to the disciplinary boundaries within which it was generated.

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Authors
  1. Bruna Seu
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Birkbeck, University of London, UK

    Stephen Frosh (Pro-Vice-Master and Professor of Psychology) (Pro-Vice-Master and Professor of Psychology)

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© 2015 Bruna Seu

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Seu, B. (2015). Knowing and Not Knowing: Implicatory Denial and Defence Mechanisms in Response to Human Rights Abuses. In: Frosh, S. (eds) Psychosocial Imaginaries. Studies in the Psychosocial. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137388186_9

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