All forms of prejudice can be explained by what’s called authoritarian distancing - the belief that we are different from some group. Because they are different, they represent a threat we need to control.

When people adopt authoritarian distancing, they display three characteristics:

• The inability to take the perspective of other people.
• The inability to feel the pain of other people when you take their perspective.
• The inability to be emotionally open to the pain of others when you do feel it.