Emerging Trends in The Social and Behavioral Sciences

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

Item

Title

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

Author

Renteln, Alison Dundes

Research Area

Social Institutions

Topic

Legal Institutions

Abstract

Sensational jurisprudence is a new branch of sociolegal studies that deals with the five senses and public policy. Because the law privileges the visual, this essay examines social science research about images of suffering and the implications of these findings. The interdisciplinary scholarship about visual culture emphasizes the negative aspects of humanitarian appeals for funding to aid the distant sufferer, and it suggests that bombarding the public with graphic depictions of pitiable individuals is counterproductive. Instead, researchers ought to develop methodologies to ascertain which emotions motivate individuals to engage in global civic action.

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Identifier

etrds0297

extracted text

Sensational Jurisprudence:
Visual Culture and Human Rights
ALISON DUNDES RENTELN

Abstract
Sensational jurisprudence is a new branch of sociolegal studies that deals with the
five senses and public policy. Because the law privileges the visual, this essay examines social science research about images of suffering and the implications of these
findings. The interdisciplinary scholarship about visual culture emphasizes the negative aspects of humanitarian appeals for funding to aid the distant sufferer, and
it suggests that bombarding the public with graphic depictions of pitiable individuals is counterproductive. Instead, researchers ought to develop methodologies to
ascertain which emotions motivate individuals to engage in global civic action.

INTRODUCTION
Sensational jurisprudence is an innovative field that examines interrelationships among the five senses and public policy. As a branch of sociolegal
studies, this highly interdisciplinary scholarship involves researchers in
anthropology, law and society, media studies, political science, psychology
sociology, and visual studies. This new field illuminates the intricate inner
workings of legal orders and considers policies that attempt to regulate
phenomena that affect the senses (Bently & Flynn, 1996).1 Because modern
legal systems privilege the “visual” (Hibbits, 1994),2 this essay considers
research about whether images play a significant role in alleviating suffering
in human rights and humanitarian crises particularly when states violate
international law.
1. In 1996, Flynn noted the novelty of taking up the law as part of the study of senses: “While interest
in the senses has occupied the attention of the social sciences recently, that theme has been little explored
in legal discourse” (p. 1). Sensational jurisprudence poses a set of questions: “How does the law sense?
What does law understand to be the nature of our senses? How does the law constitute our notions of the
senses? How does law control or regulate our senses? How does law use our senses? Which senses does
law use” (p. 2).
2. In the introduction to Law and the Senses, Bentley notes that some contributors criticize the tendency in Anglo-American law to favor visual and suggests that the hierarchy among the senses should
be reconsidered (1996, pp. 8–9).
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

SCOPE OF SENSATIONAL JURISPRUDENCE
This body of research encompasses a wide range of studies on legal aspects
of controversies related to all five senses. For example, sensational jurisprudence about touch considers policies on bodily reaction to pain and permanent body alteration (Bibbings, 1996; Classen, 2012). It also covers the social
significance of smell (Classen, Howes, & Synnott, 1994; Corbin, 1988) along
with the regulation of scent through trademark law (Maniatis, 1996) and regulation of unpleasant odors (Howes, 1989/1990, Artis & Silvester, 1986).3
Preeminent scholars David Howes and Constance Classen have published
important monographs that identify new developments such as “sensory
ethnography.”4
Another key area, the study of sound policies, is part of an emerging subfield known as acoustic jurisprudence. The gist of this approach is an argument
that “we must learn to listen to the law” (Parker, 2011, p. 989) in our consideration of how to establish a harmonious “soundscape.”5 Some of this research
addresses how courts deal with oral testimony or “auditory reception of oral
evidence” (Halder, 1996, p. 124). A vast number of laws worldwide regulate
noise, or unwanted sound, often via nuisance or noise pollution. Controversies have arisen concerning the intensity, frequency, and duration of sound
emissions. Regulations also stipulate various requirements for the level of
noise emitted by products (Hammer, Swinburn, & Neitzel, 2014, p. 118).
Interesting litigation concerns the regulation of loud religious sounds
(Weiner, 2014), and the historical contexts during which these disputes
occurred. In the twenty-first century, for instance, numerous conflicts
around the world have revolved around the Islamic call to prayer or adhan
(Renteln, 2014). Legal control of noise seems to be based on the tacit assumption that citizens deserve peace and quiet. This presumption on the part of
governmental officials that there is a human right to quiet, not complete
silence but the relative lack of noise, is a foundational principle recognized
by most modern political systems.
Anglo-American legal systems rely heavily on visual culture. Indeed,
some question the law’s favoring the visual sense or “ocularcentrism.” Even
though there is a well-known adage that “seeing is believing” (Dundes,
1980) reflecting the conventional wisdom that people tend to embrace what
they observe themselves, this does not guarantee that courts will necessarily
be influenced by strong evidence documenting injustices. For instance,
the police who were prosecuted for brutally beating Rodney King in Los
3. For a discussion of smell pollution, see Classen, Howes, and Synnott, pp. 169–172. For “stink lawsuits,” see Huber (2014).
4. David Howes, Professor of Anthropology at Concordia University, is founding editor of the journal
The Senses and Society. Dr Constance Classen edited a six-volume series on the cultural history of the senses
to be published by Berg. See Howes and Classen (2013).
5. Schafer (1976) famously coined the term soundscape.

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

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Angeles were ultimately acquitted, despite the fact that the jury watched
a videotape of the actual attacks. This suggests that even though there is a
tendency to assume that visual culture will influence behavior, this may not
necessarily be the case.
One branch of research that addresses the relationship between visual culture and human behavior concerns graphic images of suffering that are disseminated in attempts to mobilize humanitarian action. In what follows, I
discuss some of the major contributions to this debate and difficulties associated with this line of research. Finally, I offer suggestions for future studies
to investigate the effects of images in human rights and humanitarian campaigning to promote compliance with international legal standards.
VISUAL CULTURE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Images of suffering are pervasive in the media, and yet, it is unclear exactly
how they affect public perceptions of gross violations of human rights and
humanitarian crises, whether they promote enforcement of international
standards, or if they help pave the way to significant social change. Even
though human rights advocates tend to assume that exposure to information about serious governmental misconduct and the dissemination
of photographs of atrocities leads to mass action via “the mobilization of
shame” (Borer, 2012; Keenan, 2004), many scholars argue that continuously
bombarding the public with visual culture of this sort may cause individuals
to become desensitized (Cohen, 2001; Seu, 2013) and result in what some
have termed compassion fatigue (Moeller, 1999) or demand fatigue (Cohen &
Seu, 2002).6 The question central to this body of research is whether images
of suffering have the potential to help people in empirically demonstrable
ways (Ritchin, 2013).
Scholars have certainly written about social uses of images (see, e.g., Gombrich, 1999), but their purpose has rarely been the empirical demonstration
of their effects. In addition, while there are many different types of imagery
and many forms of art that do raise awareness of social injustices (Martinez
& Renteln, 2014), the social science literature about the effects of images
of suffering and the mobilization of shame tends to focus principally on
photographs.7 Despite widespread use of still images in these campaigns,
remarkably little evidence exists documenting their actual impact in society.
The importance of studying the role images play is greater now than
ever before. While photographs were a key technological innovation of the
6. Some refer to the constant 24-h news coverage of international conflicts and the possible impact on
foreign policy the “the CNN effect,” even though the effect is not based solely on CN.
7. Increasingly, scholars are turning to the moving image. For an overview of human rights films, see
Gibney (2013).

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

twentieth century, digitized social media constitute the new form of visual
communication of the twenty-first century (Ritchin, 2013), which means a
larger potential for influence. Because images are disseminated much more
easily via the Internet by citizen-journalists armed with camera-phones
(Anden-Papadopoulos, 2013), it is crucial to determine their social and
behavioral consequences. Research that examines the circumstances under
which visual culture has a positive impact on human rights and humanitarian efforts could make a significant contribution to progressive social
movements (Gregory, 2006).8 These images are deployed to exert pressure
on governments to stop abuses and to generate revenue for NGOs (Seu,
2013, p. 2).
What is the current state of the existing literature on the influence of images
of suffering? Since the 1970s, the Western media have been saturated with
many pictures of starving children in Africa. This “iconography of famine”
generated a discussion as to what constitute ethical uses of images and led
some commentators to argue that the photographs had unmistakably negative consequences for perceptions of Africans (Campbell, 2011; Graham,
2014). The recurring image of a famished child reinforces a negative stereotype of victimhood that implies individuals there lack agency. Some go so far
as to compare images of suffering and atrocity pictures to obscene material
(A. Kleinman & J. Kleinman, 1996). They make the “allusion to pornography” because of “ … the way imagery of brutality and violence appeals to
our prurient interests and the exploitative nature of graphic imagery of suffering victims” (Pruce, 2013, p. 221; see also Linfield, 2010, pp. 40–42). It is
this type of representation that many have condemned in harsh terms.
Various problems are associated with picturing those in dire need of
humanitarian assistance. By showing extreme depictions of suffering, the
viewer may turn away or feel a sense of hopelessness. There is widespread
concern that constant exposure leads to feelings of helplessness, frustration,
and disengagement. By inundating members of the public with representations of suffering continuously and over long periods of time, the NGOs
seeking financial assistance for victims of famine and other natural disasters
found, contrary to expectation, that some people reach the conclusion that
giving aid does not appear to help in the long run. Research reveals that
respondents are concerned about whether their contributions will make a
difference, so signs of progress may prove to be quite important (Radley &
Kennedy, 1997, p. 450).
The worry often expressed has been that the fleeting presentation of crises
fails to provide the historical and political context. By lacking careful explanations of the structural dimensions of global social problems, viewers are not
8. Sam Gregory is the head of Witness, an organization based in New York, that trains activists to use
videos and images generally to raise awareness and to hold governments accountable.

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

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afforded insight into the need for long-term approaches to poverty reduction,
political reform, and other necessary social changes.
Commentators ordinarily refer to a few images to advance their arguments
about the consequences of deploying photographs. Those who assume that
images matter refer to the picture of Kim Phuc taken by Nick Ut that won him
a Pulitzer prize (Jones, 2014), the youngest individual to receive one. This is
the famous photograph of a little girl wounded by napalm, running naked
down the road that became associated with shifting public perceptions of
the Vietnam War.9 This iconic photograph is often mentioned in the context
of assertions regarding the power of the image (Kaplan, 2011, p. 262; Miller,
2012).
Those who question the ethical aspects of using images often refer to Kevin
Carter’s Pulitzer prize-winning photograph of a little girl starving in the
Sudan who appears threatened by a nearby vulture perched uncomfortably
close to her. The viewer asks whether the photojournalist ought to have
allowed the bird to come right next to her and is left wondering whether he
eventually rescued her, after taking the picture (A. Kleinman & J. Kleinman,
1996).
Some uses of imagery in advertisements have led to widespread outrage
and raised ethical concerns about exploitation, for example, a series of
commercial ads by Benetton in the 1990s (Arthur, 1992). In the context
of human rights campaigns, scholars admit that it is, for the most part,
unknown whether these visual representations can accomplish their express
goals of social change (Borer, 2012, p. 72). That shocking ads may attract
public attention also leaves open the question of whether they should
be employed as a matter of principle. The issue is whether the potential
benefit of using powerful images to inspire humanitarian action can ever
justify the violation of the rights of the subjects represented in them. The
answer to the question may hinge on whether one takes a consequentialist
or deontological approach to global ethics.
FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
Scholars in many fields have asked about the actual power of images.
Although representations unquestionably affect people, it is difficult to
measure their precise influence. One reason for the challenge is the simple
fact that symbols, including pictorial representations, generally influence
individuals at a subconscious level, which means that they are largely
unaware of the ways in which they react to them, if they do at all. Yet, the
9. This famous photo is incorporated in a satirical work by the British street artist, Banksy, “Can’t
Beat the Feeling,” which shows her holding hands with Ronald MacDonald and Mickey mouse in a scene
strangely reminiscent of Dorothy on the yellow brick road in Oz.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

fact that it is difficult to ascertain the effects of images does not mean, of
course, however, that they lack power. Even if it cannot be demonstrated
that they lead to action, they may contribute to shifts in public opinion or
cognitive change. It is also possible that their effect is to elicit an emotional
response like compassion without necessarily inducing action (Johnson,
2011).
One body of research focuses on the use of photographs in advertisements
for charities, that is, aid agencies (Chang & Lee, 2009). An important study
investigates whether displaying certain types of pictures, happy-faced and
sad-faced victims will result in stronger feelings of sympathy and more donations (Small & Verrochi, 2009). They concluded that “emotional contagion”
occurs, that individuals who observe sad-faced victims will “catch” the feeling of sadness, develop feelings of sympathy, and that this generally results
in more prosocial behavior. In some circumstances, this tendency can sometimes be diminished by cognitive processing that occurs when individual
are presented with information about the victims’ plight. That is, where people thought with their hearts, happier images predisposed them to give, but
this might be undercut by countervailing texts. Other research using pictures
in experiments found that more negative images correlated with potentially
higher levels of donations (Burt & Strongman, 2005). One limitation of studies of this kind is the “presumption of universality,” namely a presumption
that all individuals respond similarly to facial expressions.
An early study of visual rhetoric by Linda Scott in which she argues for
a cross-cultural approach to pictorial research highlights the importance of
examining different social characteristics of the audience because of the possibility that people, depending on their backgrounds, may react differently
to them (Radley & Kennedy, 1997; Scott, 1994). This insight appears to have
been missed by many subsequent scholars who seem to assume that an image
will lead to a specific response, irrespective of the identities of members of
the audience.
The literature on images in campaigns by aid agencies emphasizes a few
key points. First, photographs that portray victims as suffering appear to
result in increased donations. Second, the tendency to depict mostly Africans
conveys the impression that this is the reality of all Africans. This “othering”
of Africans generated a stereotypical representation of them as pitiable, supporting the maligned “politics of pity.” (NGOs consistently wish to emphasize that they no longer use “flies in the eyes” images of African children.)
Third, because of seeing similar representations of suffering over time for the
same geographical area, the public may eventually question whether funding
actually contributes to any lasting change. The images convey the impression
that the situation remains hopeless and that there is no reason to continue

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

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donating to aid agencies. That is, although showing some degree of suffering may be effective, beyond some threshold, it is counterproductive, from
the aid agency’s perspective.
Two often-cited scholars call this approach into question. Sontag (2003),
in her influential book, Regarding the Pain of Others, argues that individuals
turn away from excessive suffering without, however, presenting empirical
proof to support this contention. Cohen (2001), in his classic study, States of
Denial identifies a set of psychological mechanisms by means of which individuals absolve themselves from responsibility for assisting those in distress.
These works famously raised the question as to whether visual culture actually encourages individuals who have exposed to images of suffering to take
any sort of humanitarian action. The desire to motivate the “unresponsive
bystander” with visual culture may be sincere, but as of yet, the approach
appears to be largely ineffectual. Whether images do sometimes influence
people and, if so, in what ways, remains to be determined in future research.
Some studies have examined the communications strategies employed by
key NGOs. Their role in promoting humanitarian causes is highly dependent on media coverage, and this evolving relationship has been the subject
of research (Cottle & Nolan, 2007). To attract sufficient coverage to achieve
their objectives, they may need to deploy graphic images, but this conflicts
with their humanitarian goals of promoting human dignity and egalitarianism. That NGOs experience tensions in the strategies of their policy and
fundraising departments is well known (Orgad, 2013, pp. 300–302).
Much existing research highlights the distance between the viewer and
those in need, and the need to overcome this divide, so the viewer can
identify with the suffering of those depicted abroad, the so-called distant
sufferer. Insofar as imagery can successfully create a connection between
them, it is thought likely to lead the spectator to act. Sometimes, this
connection is characterized as evoking feelings of empathy in the viewer
(Cikara, Bruneau, & Saxe, 2011; Kaplan, 2011).10 Ultimately, the question is
whether the process of taking away parochialism as a barrier will actually
mobilize humanitarian action.
A landmark study, Media Representation and the Global Imagination, by Shani
Orgad provides a careful examination of cultural constructions in campaigns.
Using qualitative discourse analysis, she considers a set of campaigns to find
out whether they create a sense of intimacy between the viewer and the “distant sufferer.” In this superb book, Orgad (2012, p. 187) argues persuasively
that: “ … the emphasis on symbolically annihilating distance, which seems to
be driving the work of media representation, can be positive and enabling,
but is also constraining and even repressive.”
10. A vast literature on empathy and the unresponsive bystander is relevant here. Readers may wish
to consult works by C.D. Batson, Nancy Miller, and others.

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Another major scholarly investigation of public reactions to images of suffering is the monograph by Seu (2013), Passivity Generation: Human Rights
and Everyday Morality. In this incisive and nuanced analysis, she advances
the argument that we need a more nuanced interpretation of spectator reactions to representations. Her brilliant interpretation of psychosocial factors
suggests that images of suffering can result in viewers “switching off” (Seu,
2013, p. 180).
A 3-year large-scale study, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, based at the
LSE Polis Center, and undertaken by Orgad, Seu, and colleagues, found that
the public is often cynical about NGO use of images in campaigns. When
those interviewed were asked about their reactions to photographs depicting
individuals in dire need of assistance, members of the public indicated that
they sometimes distrusted ads that made them feel manipulated (Orgad &
Vella, 2012).
The research on visual culture and human rights generally discusses
whether images elicit empathy, sympathy, and related notions of sympathy
and compassion.11 By contrast, whether and to what extent other emotions
such as anger, grief, or sadness might spur individuals to act has received
relatively little attention (Hoijer & Olausson, 2011).
Other scholarship about imagery connected to human rights issues is
not concerned with the social effects of imagery, but rather with the ways
in which framing affects public perceptions of human rights issues. Some
research centers on the misrepresentations of cultural communities (see, e.g.,
Hesford, 2011). Oftentimes, the individuals who are the subjects in photos
are shown without any explanation of historical context (Malkki, 1996). The
viewer cannot comprehend the political circumstances that gave rise to the
crisis in which the individuals find themselves.
The growing concern about ethical issues in photographing victims
resulted in the adoption of a Code of Conduct for several large NGOs
(Nelson, 2007). One of the primary considerations was whether subjects
give informed consent, particularly if they live in societies in which there
is not practice of obtaining it. Furthermore, given that such a large number
of campaigns rely on using images of children, because of the apparent
preference of NGOs and photojournalists, there is evident concern about
ensuring that parents give consent to the use of photos taken of their
children.

11. Small and Verrochi (2009, p. 778) distinguish between sympathy and empathy: “Empathy involves
experiencing the feelings experienced by another person. In contrast, sympathy is an emotional concern
for the welfare of another person … This suggests that empathy resulting from contagion also often generates sympathy”. For a study delineating different forms of compassion, see Hoijer (2004), pp. 522–523.

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

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LIMITATIONS OF EXISTING SCHOLARSHIP
The studies conducted to date have most frequently used images of children.
The social science experiments and pretesting of images by large NGOs
involves focus groups of citizens in England. Furthermore, because the
sample size is ordinarily quite small, and the composition is not diverse
enough, it is not possible to generalize from the findings. Those who have
conducted studies call for more “audience” research to examine how the
public responds to differing types of imagery is needed. As Hoijer (2011,
p. 513) has said: “There are especially few empirical studies of audiences’
reactions to and interpretations of the media exposure of distant suffering.” Some contend that the conservative approach of American media
regarding bloodless imagery may not be shared and suggest that this may
influence audience reactions (Figenschou, 2011, p. 242; Kennedy, 2008,
p. 287; Perez-Duenas, Rivas, Oyediran, Acosta-Mesas, & Branas-Garza,
2012). Moreover, it will be important to ascertain differing responses based
on social characteristics such as cultural background (Radley & Kennedy,
1997; Seu, 2013).
FUTURE RESEARCH: STUDYING VISUAL CULTURE
IN HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGNS
Research is necessary to figure out when visual culture succeeds in generating public support for positive change. Through carefully designed studies
with cultural diverse subjects, social scientists can investigate how differing
groups react to depictions of various human rights issues. Future studies will
have to consider not only still images but also the rapid dissemination of
videos via social media, YouTube, and even video games. It remains to be
seen how videos that “go viral” contribute to the success and failure of specific human rights and humanitarian campaigns.
Researchers cannot assume that individuals in vastly different societies
respond similarly to imagery. A much more nuanced approach to “audience”
reaction will be necessary for groundbreaking research on media effects
related to human rights.12 It is worth asking if social characteristics such as
age, ethnicity, gender, and religious affiliation appear to influence reactions
to particular images.
More studies of how viewers in other countries respond to visual culture
are crucial for serious social science. Just as cultural psychology has demonstrated the fallacy that individuals conceptualize their relationship to the
12. For a trenchant critique of existing approaches to the analysis of distant suffering, see Fuyuki
Kurasawa (2009).

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collective, similarly scholars who investigate the significance of imagery patterns for diverse cultural communities will need to consider the context of
viewers.13
One of the main challenges that lie ahead is studying the positive dimensions of human rights campaigns that include images. Instead of always
assuming that the imagery will reinforce nefarious stereotypes and cause
harm, scholars might conduct impact assessments of photographs that contribute to positive social change. These may reveal the features of successful
campaigns that resonate with different types of people and motivate them
to take faster steps toward global civic engagement.
CONCLUSION
Images are powerful and often play a key role in human rights and
humanitarian campaigns. Although they are deployed by organizations
lacking resources to test their impact, they help shape public understanding
of international affairs. Having a deeper understanding of the precise
manner in which visual culture influences decision-makers and the public
would benefit those concerned with bringing about positive social change.
Social scientists can contribute to humanitarian efforts through research of
this kind.
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Hibbits, B. (1994). Making sense of metaphors: Visuality, aurality and the reconfiguration of American Legal Discourse. Cardozo Law Review, 16, 229–356.
Hoijer, B. (2011). The discourse of global compassion: The audience and media
reporting of human suffering. Media, Culture, and Society, 26(4), 513–531.

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Hoijer, B., & Olausson, U. (2011). The Role of the Media in the Transformation of
Citizens’ Social Representations of Suffering. In C. Mohamed, D. Berth & S. Staffan
(Eds.), Education, professionalization and social representation: On the transformation of
social knowledge (pp. 200–217). New York, NY: Routledge.
Howes, D. (1989/1990). Odour in the Court. Border/lines, 17, 288–230.
Howes, D., & Classen, C. (2013). Ways of sensing: Understanding the senses in society.
London, England: Routledge.
Huber, B. (2014). Law and odor: How to take down a terrible-smelling hog farm.
Mother Jones, 39(3), 7–8.
Johnson, J. (2011). The arithmetic of compassion: Rethinking the politics of photography. British Journal of Political Science, 41, 621–643.
Jones, N. (2014). Nick Ut on His Napalm Girl, 42 years later. People Available at
http://www.people.com/article/nick-ut-napalm-girl-photo-kim-phuc 12/28/14
Kaplan, E. A. (2011). Empathy and trauma culture: Imaging catastrophe. In A.
Coplin & P. Goldie (Eds.), Empathy: Philosophical and psychological perspectives
(pp. 255–276). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Keenan, T. (2004). Mobilization of shame. South Atlantic Quarterly, 103(2/3), 435–449.
Kennedy, L. (2008). Securing vision: Photography and U.S. foreign policy. Media,
Culture, and Society, 30, 279–294.
Kleinman, A., & Kleinman, J. (1996). The appeal of experience; The dismay of images:
Cultural appropriations of suffering in our times. Daedalus, 125(1), 1–25.
Kurasawa, F. (2009). A message in a bottle: Bearing witness as a mode of transnational
practice. Theory, Culture & Society, 26, 92–111.
Linfield, S. (2010). The cruel radiance: Photography and political violence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Malkki, L. (1996). Speechless emissaries: Refugees, humanitarianism, and dehistoricization. Cultural Anthropology, 11(3), 377–404.
Maniatis, S. (1996). Scents as trademarks: Propertisation of scents and olfactory
poverty. In L. Bently & L. Flynn (Eds.), Law and the Senses: Sensational Jurisprudence
(pp. 217–235). London: Pluto Press.
Martinez, M. A., & Renteln, A. D. (2014). Human rights and art. In M. Gibney & A.
Mihr (Eds.), The Sage Handbook on Human Rights (pp. 439–459). London, England:
Sage.
Miller, N. (2012). The girl in the photograph. In G. Batchen, M. Gidley, N. K. Miller
& J. Prosser (Eds.), Picturing atrocity: Photography in crisis (pp. 146–154). London,
England: Reaktion Books.
Moeller, S. (1999). Compassion fatigue: How the media sell misery, war, and death. New
York, NY: Routledge.
Nelson, J. (2007). The operation of NGOS in a World of Corporate and other codes of conduct.
Working Paper #34. Cambridge, England: John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Orgad, S. (2012). Media representation and the global imagination. Cambridge, England:
Polity.
Orgad, S. (2013). Visualizers of solidarity: Organizational politics in humanitarian and international development organizations. Visual Communication, 12(3),
295–314.

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Orgad, S., & Vella, C. (2012). Who cares? challenges and opportunities in communicating distant suffering: A view from the development and humanitarian sector. London,
England: Polis.
Parker, J. (2011). The soundscape of justice. Griffiths Law Review, 20, 962–993.
Perez-Duenas, C., Rivas, M. F., Oyediran, O. A., Acosta-Mesas, A., & Branas-Garza,
P. (2012). Words make people think, … but pictures make people feel: The effect of
negative vs. positive images on charitable behavior 1–7. http://precedings.nature.
com/documents/4287/version/1
Pruce, J. R. (2013). The spectacle of suffering and humanitarian intervention in Somalia. In T. A. Borer (Ed.), Media, mobilization and human rights (pp. 216–239). London,
England: Zed.
Radley, A., & Kennedy, M. (1997). Picturing need: Images of overseas aid and interpretation of cultural differences. Culture and Psychology, 3, 435–459.
Renteln, A. D. (2014). The tension between religious freedom and noise law: The call
to prayer in a multicultural society. In H. Dagan, S. Lifshitz & Y. Z. Stern (Eds.),
Religion and the Discourse of Human rights discourse (pp. 375–411). Israel Democracy
Institute: Jerusalem.
Ritchin, F. (2013). Bending the frame: Photojournalism, documentary, and the citizen. New
York, NY: Aperture.
Schafer, R. M. (1976). The soundscape: Our sonic environment and the tuning of the world.
Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books.
Scott, L. M. (1994). Images in advertising: The need for a theory of the visual rhetoric.
Journal of Consumer Research, 21, 252–273.
Seu, I. B. (2013). Passivity generation: Human rights and everyday morality. London,
England: Palgrave/MacMillan.
Small, D., & Verrochi, N. (2009). The face of need: Facial emotion expression on charity advertisements. Journal of Marketing Research, 46, 777–787.
Sontag, S. (2003). Regarding the pain of others. New York, NY: Picador.
Weiner, I. (2014). Religion out loud: Religious sound, public space, and American pluralism.
New York: New York University Press.

FURTHER READING
Crook, T. (2010). Comparative media law and ethics. London, England: Routledge.

ALISON DUNDES RENTELN SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Alison Dundes Renteln is a Professor of Political Science, Anthropology,
Law, and Public Policy at the University of Southern California where she
teaches international law and human rights. A graduate of Harvard (History
and Literature), she has a PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the
University of California, Berkeley, and a JD from the USC Gould School of
Law. Her publications include The Cultural Defense (Oxford, 2004), Folk Law

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

(University of Wisconsin, 1995), Multicultural Jurisprudence: (Hart, 2009), and
Cultural Law (Cambridge, 2010). She has taught judges, lawyers, court interpreters, jury consultants, and police officers at meetings of the American
Bar Association, National Association of Women Judges, North American
South Asian Bar Association, American Society of Trial Consultants, and others. She has collaborated with the United Nation on the implementation of
the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, lectured on comparative legal ethics in Bangkok and Manila at ABA-sponsored conferences,
and served on several California civil rights commissions and the California committee of Human Rights Watch. In Fall 2013, she was a Fellow at
Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences where she
conducted research on incentives for civic engagement including the legal
duty to rescue. In Spring 2014 she was a Human Rights Fellow at the School
of Advanced Study at the University of London.
RELATED ESSAYS
Empathy Gaps between Helpers and Help-Seekers: Implications for Cooperation (Psychology), Vanessa K. Bohns and Francis J. Flynn
Mental Models (Psychology), Ruth M. J. Byrne
Spatial Attention (Psychology), Kyle R. Cave
Culture and Cognition (Sociology), Karen A. Cerulo
Misinformation and How to Correct It (Psychology), John Cook et al.
Cultural Differences in Emotions (Psychology), Jozefien De Leersnyder et al.
Bullying, Aggression, and Human Development (Psychology), Samuel E.
Ehrenreich and Marion K. Underwood
Cognitive Processes Involved in Stereotyping (Psychology), Susan T. Fiske
and Cydney H. Dupree
Ambivalence and Inbetweeness (Sociology), Bernhard Giesen
Biology and Culture (Psychology), Robert Peter Hobson
The Neurobiology and Physiology of Emotions: A Developmental Perspective (Psychology), Sarah S. Kahle and Paul D. Hastings
Neuroeconomics (Sociology), Ifat Levy
Resource Limitations in Visual Cognition (Psychology), Brandon M. Liverence and Steven L. Franconeri
Media Neuroscience (Communications & Media), J. Michael Mangus et al.
Implicit Memory (Psychology), Dawn M. McBride
Neural and Cognitive Plasticity (Psychology), Eduardo Mercado III
Implicit Attitude Measures (Psychology), Gregory Mitchell and Philip E.
Tetlock
Emerging Trends in Culture and Concepts (Psychology), Bethany Ojalehto
and Douglas Medin

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

15

Culture as Situated Cognition (Psychology), Daphna Oyserman
Attention and Perception (Psychology), Ronald A. Rensink
Understanding Biological Motion (Psychology), Jeroen J. A. Van Boxtel and
Hongjing Lu
Speech Perception (Psychology), Athena Vouloumanos
Behavioral Heterochrony (Anthropology), Victoria Wobber and Brian Hare



Sensational Jurisprudence:
Visual Culture and Human Rights
ALISON DUNDES RENTELN

Abstract
Sensational jurisprudence is a new branch of sociolegal studies that deals with the
five senses and public policy. Because the law privileges the visual, this essay examines social science research about images of suffering and the implications of these
findings. The interdisciplinary scholarship about visual culture emphasizes the negative aspects of humanitarian appeals for funding to aid the distant sufferer, and
it suggests that bombarding the public with graphic depictions of pitiable individuals is counterproductive. Instead, researchers ought to develop methodologies to
ascertain which emotions motivate individuals to engage in global civic action.

INTRODUCTION
Sensational jurisprudence is an innovative field that examines interrelationships among the five senses and public policy. As a branch of sociolegal
studies, this highly interdisciplinary scholarship involves researchers in
anthropology, law and society, media studies, political science, psychology
sociology, and visual studies. This new field illuminates the intricate inner
workings of legal orders and considers policies that attempt to regulate
phenomena that affect the senses (Bently & Flynn, 1996).1 Because modern
legal systems privilege the “visual” (Hibbits, 1994),2 this essay considers
research about whether images play a significant role in alleviating suffering
in human rights and humanitarian crises particularly when states violate
international law.
1. In 1996, Flynn noted the novelty of taking up the law as part of the study of senses: “While interest
in the senses has occupied the attention of the social sciences recently, that theme has been little explored
in legal discourse” (p. 1). Sensational jurisprudence poses a set of questions: “How does the law sense?
What does law understand to be the nature of our senses? How does the law constitute our notions of the
senses? How does law control or regulate our senses? How does law use our senses? Which senses does
law use” (p. 2).
2. In the introduction to Law and the Senses, Bentley notes that some contributors criticize the tendency in Anglo-American law to favor visual and suggests that the hierarchy among the senses should
be reconsidered (1996, pp. 8–9).
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

1

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SCOPE OF SENSATIONAL JURISPRUDENCE
This body of research encompasses a wide range of studies on legal aspects
of controversies related to all five senses. For example, sensational jurisprudence about touch considers policies on bodily reaction to pain and permanent body alteration (Bibbings, 1996; Classen, 2012). It also covers the social
significance of smell (Classen, Howes, & Synnott, 1994; Corbin, 1988) along
with the regulation of scent through trademark law (Maniatis, 1996) and regulation of unpleasant odors (Howes, 1989/1990, Artis & Silvester, 1986).3
Preeminent scholars David Howes and Constance Classen have published
important monographs that identify new developments such as “sensory
ethnography.”4
Another key area, the study of sound policies, is part of an emerging subfield known as acoustic jurisprudence. The gist of this approach is an argument
that “we must learn to listen to the law” (Parker, 2011, p. 989) in our consideration of how to establish a harmonious “soundscape.”5 Some of this research
addresses how courts deal with oral testimony or “auditory reception of oral
evidence” (Halder, 1996, p. 124). A vast number of laws worldwide regulate
noise, or unwanted sound, often via nuisance or noise pollution. Controversies have arisen concerning the intensity, frequency, and duration of sound
emissions. Regulations also stipulate various requirements for the level of
noise emitted by products (Hammer, Swinburn, & Neitzel, 2014, p. 118).
Interesting litigation concerns the regulation of loud religious sounds
(Weiner, 2014), and the historical contexts during which these disputes
occurred. In the twenty-first century, for instance, numerous conflicts
around the world have revolved around the Islamic call to prayer or adhan
(Renteln, 2014). Legal control of noise seems to be based on the tacit assumption that citizens deserve peace and quiet. This presumption on the part of
governmental officials that there is a human right to quiet, not complete
silence but the relative lack of noise, is a foundational principle recognized
by most modern political systems.
Anglo-American legal systems rely heavily on visual culture. Indeed,
some question the law’s favoring the visual sense or “ocularcentrism.” Even
though there is a well-known adage that “seeing is believing” (Dundes,
1980) reflecting the conventional wisdom that people tend to embrace what
they observe themselves, this does not guarantee that courts will necessarily
be influenced by strong evidence documenting injustices. For instance,
the police who were prosecuted for brutally beating Rodney King in Los
3. For a discussion of smell pollution, see Classen, Howes, and Synnott, pp. 169–172. For “stink lawsuits,” see Huber (2014).
4. David Howes, Professor of Anthropology at Concordia University, is founding editor of the journal
The Senses and Society. Dr Constance Classen edited a six-volume series on the cultural history of the senses
to be published by Berg. See Howes and Classen (2013).
5. Schafer (1976) famously coined the term soundscape.

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Angeles were ultimately acquitted, despite the fact that the jury watched
a videotape of the actual attacks. This suggests that even though there is a
tendency to assume that visual culture will influence behavior, this may not
necessarily be the case.
One branch of research that addresses the relationship between visual culture and human behavior concerns graphic images of suffering that are disseminated in attempts to mobilize humanitarian action. In what follows, I
discuss some of the major contributions to this debate and difficulties associated with this line of research. Finally, I offer suggestions for future studies
to investigate the effects of images in human rights and humanitarian campaigning to promote compliance with international legal standards.
VISUAL CULTURE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Images of suffering are pervasive in the media, and yet, it is unclear exactly
how they affect public perceptions of gross violations of human rights and
humanitarian crises, whether they promote enforcement of international
standards, or if they help pave the way to significant social change. Even
though human rights advocates tend to assume that exposure to information about serious governmental misconduct and the dissemination
of photographs of atrocities leads to mass action via “the mobilization of
shame” (Borer, 2012; Keenan, 2004), many scholars argue that continuously
bombarding the public with visual culture of this sort may cause individuals
to become desensitized (Cohen, 2001; Seu, 2013) and result in what some
have termed compassion fatigue (Moeller, 1999) or demand fatigue (Cohen &
Seu, 2002).6 The question central to this body of research is whether images
of suffering have the potential to help people in empirically demonstrable
ways (Ritchin, 2013).
Scholars have certainly written about social uses of images (see, e.g., Gombrich, 1999), but their purpose has rarely been the empirical demonstration
of their effects. In addition, while there are many different types of imagery
and many forms of art that do raise awareness of social injustices (Martinez
& Renteln, 2014), the social science literature about the effects of images
of suffering and the mobilization of shame tends to focus principally on
photographs.7 Despite widespread use of still images in these campaigns,
remarkably little evidence exists documenting their actual impact in society.
The importance of studying the role images play is greater now than
ever before. While photographs were a key technological innovation of the
6. Some refer to the constant 24-h news coverage of international conflicts and the possible impact on
foreign policy the “the CNN effect,” even though the effect is not based solely on CN.
7. Increasingly, scholars are turning to the moving image. For an overview of human rights films, see
Gibney (2013).

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

twentieth century, digitized social media constitute the new form of visual
communication of the twenty-first century (Ritchin, 2013), which means a
larger potential for influence. Because images are disseminated much more
easily via the Internet by citizen-journalists armed with camera-phones
(Anden-Papadopoulos, 2013), it is crucial to determine their social and
behavioral consequences. Research that examines the circumstances under
which visual culture has a positive impact on human rights and humanitarian efforts could make a significant contribution to progressive social
movements (Gregory, 2006).8 These images are deployed to exert pressure
on governments to stop abuses and to generate revenue for NGOs (Seu,
2013, p. 2).
What is the current state of the existing literature on the influence of images
of suffering? Since the 1970s, the Western media have been saturated with
many pictures of starving children in Africa. This “iconography of famine”
generated a discussion as to what constitute ethical uses of images and led
some commentators to argue that the photographs had unmistakably negative consequences for perceptions of Africans (Campbell, 2011; Graham,
2014). The recurring image of a famished child reinforces a negative stereotype of victimhood that implies individuals there lack agency. Some go so far
as to compare images of suffering and atrocity pictures to obscene material
(A. Kleinman & J. Kleinman, 1996). They make the “allusion to pornography” because of “ … the way imagery of brutality and violence appeals to
our prurient interests and the exploitative nature of graphic imagery of suffering victims” (Pruce, 2013, p. 221; see also Linfield, 2010, pp. 40–42). It is
this type of representation that many have condemned in harsh terms.
Various problems are associated with picturing those in dire need of
humanitarian assistance. By showing extreme depictions of suffering, the
viewer may turn away or feel a sense of hopelessness. There is widespread
concern that constant exposure leads to feelings of helplessness, frustration,
and disengagement. By inundating members of the public with representations of suffering continuously and over long periods of time, the NGOs
seeking financial assistance for victims of famine and other natural disasters
found, contrary to expectation, that some people reach the conclusion that
giving aid does not appear to help in the long run. Research reveals that
respondents are concerned about whether their contributions will make a
difference, so signs of progress may prove to be quite important (Radley &
Kennedy, 1997, p. 450).
The worry often expressed has been that the fleeting presentation of crises
fails to provide the historical and political context. By lacking careful explanations of the structural dimensions of global social problems, viewers are not
8. Sam Gregory is the head of Witness, an organization based in New York, that trains activists to use
videos and images generally to raise awareness and to hold governments accountable.

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

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afforded insight into the need for long-term approaches to poverty reduction,
political reform, and other necessary social changes.
Commentators ordinarily refer to a few images to advance their arguments
about the consequences of deploying photographs. Those who assume that
images matter refer to the picture of Kim Phuc taken by Nick Ut that won him
a Pulitzer prize (Jones, 2014), the youngest individual to receive one. This is
the famous photograph of a little girl wounded by napalm, running naked
down the road that became associated with shifting public perceptions of
the Vietnam War.9 This iconic photograph is often mentioned in the context
of assertions regarding the power of the image (Kaplan, 2011, p. 262; Miller,
2012).
Those who question the ethical aspects of using images often refer to Kevin
Carter’s Pulitzer prize-winning photograph of a little girl starving in the
Sudan who appears threatened by a nearby vulture perched uncomfortably
close to her. The viewer asks whether the photojournalist ought to have
allowed the bird to come right next to her and is left wondering whether he
eventually rescued her, after taking the picture (A. Kleinman & J. Kleinman,
1996).
Some uses of imagery in advertisements have led to widespread outrage
and raised ethical concerns about exploitation, for example, a series of
commercial ads by Benetton in the 1990s (Arthur, 1992). In the context
of human rights campaigns, scholars admit that it is, for the most part,
unknown whether these visual representations can accomplish their express
goals of social change (Borer, 2012, p. 72). That shocking ads may attract
public attention also leaves open the question of whether they should
be employed as a matter of principle. The issue is whether the potential
benefit of using powerful images to inspire humanitarian action can ever
justify the violation of the rights of the subjects represented in them. The
answer to the question may hinge on whether one takes a consequentialist
or deontological approach to global ethics.
FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
Scholars in many fields have asked about the actual power of images.
Although representations unquestionably affect people, it is difficult to
measure their precise influence. One reason for the challenge is the simple
fact that symbols, including pictorial representations, generally influence
individuals at a subconscious level, which means that they are largely
unaware of the ways in which they react to them, if they do at all. Yet, the
9. This famous photo is incorporated in a satirical work by the British street artist, Banksy, “Can’t
Beat the Feeling,” which shows her holding hands with Ronald MacDonald and Mickey mouse in a scene
strangely reminiscent of Dorothy on the yellow brick road in Oz.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

fact that it is difficult to ascertain the effects of images does not mean, of
course, however, that they lack power. Even if it cannot be demonstrated
that they lead to action, they may contribute to shifts in public opinion or
cognitive change. It is also possible that their effect is to elicit an emotional
response like compassion without necessarily inducing action (Johnson,
2011).
One body of research focuses on the use of photographs in advertisements
for charities, that is, aid agencies (Chang & Lee, 2009). An important study
investigates whether displaying certain types of pictures, happy-faced and
sad-faced victims will result in stronger feelings of sympathy and more donations (Small & Verrochi, 2009). They concluded that “emotional contagion”
occurs, that individuals who observe sad-faced victims will “catch” the feeling of sadness, develop feelings of sympathy, and that this generally results
in more prosocial behavior. In some circumstances, this tendency can sometimes be diminished by cognitive processing that occurs when individual
are presented with information about the victims’ plight. That is, where people thought with their hearts, happier images predisposed them to give, but
this might be undercut by countervailing texts. Other research using pictures
in experiments found that more negative images correlated with potentially
higher levels of donations (Burt & Strongman, 2005). One limitation of studies of this kind is the “presumption of universality,” namely a presumption
that all individuals respond similarly to facial expressions.
An early study of visual rhetoric by Linda Scott in which she argues for
a cross-cultural approach to pictorial research highlights the importance of
examining different social characteristics of the audience because of the possibility that people, depending on their backgrounds, may react differently
to them (Radley & Kennedy, 1997; Scott, 1994). This insight appears to have
been missed by many subsequent scholars who seem to assume that an image
will lead to a specific response, irrespective of the identities of members of
the audience.
The literature on images in campaigns by aid agencies emphasizes a few
key points. First, photographs that portray victims as suffering appear to
result in increased donations. Second, the tendency to depict mostly Africans
conveys the impression that this is the reality of all Africans. This “othering”
of Africans generated a stereotypical representation of them as pitiable, supporting the maligned “politics of pity.” (NGOs consistently wish to emphasize that they no longer use “flies in the eyes” images of African children.)
Third, because of seeing similar representations of suffering over time for the
same geographical area, the public may eventually question whether funding
actually contributes to any lasting change. The images convey the impression
that the situation remains hopeless and that there is no reason to continue

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

7

donating to aid agencies. That is, although showing some degree of suffering may be effective, beyond some threshold, it is counterproductive, from
the aid agency’s perspective.
Two often-cited scholars call this approach into question. Sontag (2003),
in her influential book, Regarding the Pain of Others, argues that individuals
turn away from excessive suffering without, however, presenting empirical
proof to support this contention. Cohen (2001), in his classic study, States of
Denial identifies a set of psychological mechanisms by means of which individuals absolve themselves from responsibility for assisting those in distress.
These works famously raised the question as to whether visual culture actually encourages individuals who have exposed to images of suffering to take
any sort of humanitarian action. The desire to motivate the “unresponsive
bystander” with visual culture may be sincere, but as of yet, the approach
appears to be largely ineffectual. Whether images do sometimes influence
people and, if so, in what ways, remains to be determined in future research.
Some studies have examined the communications strategies employed by
key NGOs. Their role in promoting humanitarian causes is highly dependent on media coverage, and this evolving relationship has been the subject
of research (Cottle & Nolan, 2007). To attract sufficient coverage to achieve
their objectives, they may need to deploy graphic images, but this conflicts
with their humanitarian goals of promoting human dignity and egalitarianism. That NGOs experience tensions in the strategies of their policy and
fundraising departments is well known (Orgad, 2013, pp. 300–302).
Much existing research highlights the distance between the viewer and
those in need, and the need to overcome this divide, so the viewer can
identify with the suffering of those depicted abroad, the so-called distant
sufferer. Insofar as imagery can successfully create a connection between
them, it is thought likely to lead the spectator to act. Sometimes, this
connection is characterized as evoking feelings of empathy in the viewer
(Cikara, Bruneau, & Saxe, 2011; Kaplan, 2011).10 Ultimately, the question is
whether the process of taking away parochialism as a barrier will actually
mobilize humanitarian action.
A landmark study, Media Representation and the Global Imagination, by Shani
Orgad provides a careful examination of cultural constructions in campaigns.
Using qualitative discourse analysis, she considers a set of campaigns to find
out whether they create a sense of intimacy between the viewer and the “distant sufferer.” In this superb book, Orgad (2012, p. 187) argues persuasively
that: “ … the emphasis on symbolically annihilating distance, which seems to
be driving the work of media representation, can be positive and enabling,
but is also constraining and even repressive.”
10. A vast literature on empathy and the unresponsive bystander is relevant here. Readers may wish
to consult works by C.D. Batson, Nancy Miller, and others.

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Another major scholarly investigation of public reactions to images of suffering is the monograph by Seu (2013), Passivity Generation: Human Rights
and Everyday Morality. In this incisive and nuanced analysis, she advances
the argument that we need a more nuanced interpretation of spectator reactions to representations. Her brilliant interpretation of psychosocial factors
suggests that images of suffering can result in viewers “switching off” (Seu,
2013, p. 180).
A 3-year large-scale study, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, based at the
LSE Polis Center, and undertaken by Orgad, Seu, and colleagues, found that
the public is often cynical about NGO use of images in campaigns. When
those interviewed were asked about their reactions to photographs depicting
individuals in dire need of assistance, members of the public indicated that
they sometimes distrusted ads that made them feel manipulated (Orgad &
Vella, 2012).
The research on visual culture and human rights generally discusses
whether images elicit empathy, sympathy, and related notions of sympathy
and compassion.11 By contrast, whether and to what extent other emotions
such as anger, grief, or sadness might spur individuals to act has received
relatively little attention (Hoijer & Olausson, 2011).
Other scholarship about imagery connected to human rights issues is
not concerned with the social effects of imagery, but rather with the ways
in which framing affects public perceptions of human rights issues. Some
research centers on the misrepresentations of cultural communities (see, e.g.,
Hesford, 2011). Oftentimes, the individuals who are the subjects in photos
are shown without any explanation of historical context (Malkki, 1996). The
viewer cannot comprehend the political circumstances that gave rise to the
crisis in which the individuals find themselves.
The growing concern about ethical issues in photographing victims
resulted in the adoption of a Code of Conduct for several large NGOs
(Nelson, 2007). One of the primary considerations was whether subjects
give informed consent, particularly if they live in societies in which there
is not practice of obtaining it. Furthermore, given that such a large number
of campaigns rely on using images of children, because of the apparent
preference of NGOs and photojournalists, there is evident concern about
ensuring that parents give consent to the use of photos taken of their
children.

11. Small and Verrochi (2009, p. 778) distinguish between sympathy and empathy: “Empathy involves
experiencing the feelings experienced by another person. In contrast, sympathy is an emotional concern
for the welfare of another person … This suggests that empathy resulting from contagion also often generates sympathy”. For a study delineating different forms of compassion, see Hoijer (2004), pp. 522–523.

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LIMITATIONS OF EXISTING SCHOLARSHIP
The studies conducted to date have most frequently used images of children.
The social science experiments and pretesting of images by large NGOs
involves focus groups of citizens in England. Furthermore, because the
sample size is ordinarily quite small, and the composition is not diverse
enough, it is not possible to generalize from the findings. Those who have
conducted studies call for more “audience” research to examine how the
public responds to differing types of imagery is needed. As Hoijer (2011,
p. 513) has said: “There are especially few empirical studies of audiences’
reactions to and interpretations of the media exposure of distant suffering.” Some contend that the conservative approach of American media
regarding bloodless imagery may not be shared and suggest that this may
influence audience reactions (Figenschou, 2011, p. 242; Kennedy, 2008,
p. 287; Perez-Duenas, Rivas, Oyediran, Acosta-Mesas, & Branas-Garza,
2012). Moreover, it will be important to ascertain differing responses based
on social characteristics such as cultural background (Radley & Kennedy,
1997; Seu, 2013).
FUTURE RESEARCH: STUDYING VISUAL CULTURE
IN HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGNS
Research is necessary to figure out when visual culture succeeds in generating public support for positive change. Through carefully designed studies
with cultural diverse subjects, social scientists can investigate how differing
groups react to depictions of various human rights issues. Future studies will
have to consider not only still images but also the rapid dissemination of
videos via social media, YouTube, and even video games. It remains to be
seen how videos that “go viral” contribute to the success and failure of specific human rights and humanitarian campaigns.
Researchers cannot assume that individuals in vastly different societies
respond similarly to imagery. A much more nuanced approach to “audience”
reaction will be necessary for groundbreaking research on media effects
related to human rights.12 It is worth asking if social characteristics such as
age, ethnicity, gender, and religious affiliation appear to influence reactions
to particular images.
More studies of how viewers in other countries respond to visual culture
are crucial for serious social science. Just as cultural psychology has demonstrated the fallacy that individuals conceptualize their relationship to the
12. For a trenchant critique of existing approaches to the analysis of distant suffering, see Fuyuki
Kurasawa (2009).

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

collective, similarly scholars who investigate the significance of imagery patterns for diverse cultural communities will need to consider the context of
viewers.13
One of the main challenges that lie ahead is studying the positive dimensions of human rights campaigns that include images. Instead of always
assuming that the imagery will reinforce nefarious stereotypes and cause
harm, scholars might conduct impact assessments of photographs that contribute to positive social change. These may reveal the features of successful
campaigns that resonate with different types of people and motivate them
to take faster steps toward global civic engagement.
CONCLUSION
Images are powerful and often play a key role in human rights and
humanitarian campaigns. Although they are deployed by organizations
lacking resources to test their impact, they help shape public understanding
of international affairs. Having a deeper understanding of the precise
manner in which visual culture influences decision-makers and the public
would benefit those concerned with bringing about positive social change.
Social scientists can contribute to humanitarian efforts through research of
this kind.
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Campbell, D. (2011). The iconography of famine. In G. Batchen, M. Gidley, N.
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Gregory, S. (2006). Transnational storytelling: Human rights, WITNESS, and video
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Halder, P. (1996). Acoustic justice. In L. Bently & L. Flynn (Eds.), Law and the Senses:
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Hammer, M., Swinburn, T., & Neitzel, R. (2014). Environmental noise pollution in
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Hibbits, B. (1994). Making sense of metaphors: Visuality, aurality and the reconfiguration of American Legal Discourse. Cardozo Law Review, 16, 229–356.
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Hoijer, B., & Olausson, U. (2011). The Role of the Media in the Transformation of
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Jones, N. (2014). Nick Ut on His Napalm Girl, 42 years later. People Available at
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Kaplan, E. A. (2011). Empathy and trauma culture: Imaging catastrophe. In A.
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Kleinman, A., & Kleinman, J. (1996). The appeal of experience; The dismay of images:
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Kurasawa, F. (2009). A message in a bottle: Bearing witness as a mode of transnational
practice. Theory, Culture & Society, 26, 92–111.
Linfield, S. (2010). The cruel radiance: Photography and political violence. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Malkki, L. (1996). Speechless emissaries: Refugees, humanitarianism, and dehistoricization. Cultural Anthropology, 11(3), 377–404.
Maniatis, S. (1996). Scents as trademarks: Propertisation of scents and olfactory
poverty. In L. Bently & L. Flynn (Eds.), Law and the Senses: Sensational Jurisprudence
(pp. 217–235). London: Pluto Press.
Martinez, M. A., & Renteln, A. D. (2014). Human rights and art. In M. Gibney & A.
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Miller, N. (2012). The girl in the photograph. In G. Batchen, M. Gidley, N. K. Miller
& J. Prosser (Eds.), Picturing atrocity: Photography in crisis (pp. 146–154). London,
England: Reaktion Books.
Moeller, S. (1999). Compassion fatigue: How the media sell misery, war, and death. New
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Working Paper #34. Cambridge, England: John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Orgad, S. (2012). Media representation and the global imagination. Cambridge, England:
Polity.
Orgad, S. (2013). Visualizers of solidarity: Organizational politics in humanitarian and international development organizations. Visual Communication, 12(3),
295–314.

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Orgad, S., & Vella, C. (2012). Who cares? challenges and opportunities in communicating distant suffering: A view from the development and humanitarian sector. London,
England: Polis.
Parker, J. (2011). The soundscape of justice. Griffiths Law Review, 20, 962–993.
Perez-Duenas, C., Rivas, M. F., Oyediran, O. A., Acosta-Mesas, A., & Branas-Garza,
P. (2012). Words make people think, … but pictures make people feel: The effect of
negative vs. positive images on charitable behavior 1–7. http://precedings.nature.
com/documents/4287/version/1
Pruce, J. R. (2013). The spectacle of suffering and humanitarian intervention in Somalia. In T. A. Borer (Ed.), Media, mobilization and human rights (pp. 216–239). London,
England: Zed.
Radley, A., & Kennedy, M. (1997). Picturing need: Images of overseas aid and interpretation of cultural differences. Culture and Psychology, 3, 435–459.
Renteln, A. D. (2014). The tension between religious freedom and noise law: The call
to prayer in a multicultural society. In H. Dagan, S. Lifshitz & Y. Z. Stern (Eds.),
Religion and the Discourse of Human rights discourse (pp. 375–411). Israel Democracy
Institute: Jerusalem.
Ritchin, F. (2013). Bending the frame: Photojournalism, documentary, and the citizen. New
York, NY: Aperture.
Schafer, R. M. (1976). The soundscape: Our sonic environment and the tuning of the world.
Rochester, Vermont: Destiny Books.
Scott, L. M. (1994). Images in advertising: The need for a theory of the visual rhetoric.
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Seu, I. B. (2013). Passivity generation: Human rights and everyday morality. London,
England: Palgrave/MacMillan.
Small, D., & Verrochi, N. (2009). The face of need: Facial emotion expression on charity advertisements. Journal of Marketing Research, 46, 777–787.
Sontag, S. (2003). Regarding the pain of others. New York, NY: Picador.
Weiner, I. (2014). Religion out loud: Religious sound, public space, and American pluralism.
New York: New York University Press.

FURTHER READING
Crook, T. (2010). Comparative media law and ethics. London, England: Routledge.

ALISON DUNDES RENTELN SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Alison Dundes Renteln is a Professor of Political Science, Anthropology,
Law, and Public Policy at the University of Southern California where she
teaches international law and human rights. A graduate of Harvard (History
and Literature), she has a PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the
University of California, Berkeley, and a JD from the USC Gould School of
Law. Her publications include The Cultural Defense (Oxford, 2004), Folk Law

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

(University of Wisconsin, 1995), Multicultural Jurisprudence: (Hart, 2009), and
Cultural Law (Cambridge, 2010). She has taught judges, lawyers, court interpreters, jury consultants, and police officers at meetings of the American
Bar Association, National Association of Women Judges, North American
South Asian Bar Association, American Society of Trial Consultants, and others. She has collaborated with the United Nation on the implementation of
the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, lectured on comparative legal ethics in Bangkok and Manila at ABA-sponsored conferences,
and served on several California civil rights commissions and the California committee of Human Rights Watch. In Fall 2013, she was a Fellow at
Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences where she
conducted research on incentives for civic engagement including the legal
duty to rescue. In Spring 2014 she was a Human Rights Fellow at the School
of Advanced Study at the University of London.
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Culture and Cognition (Sociology), Karen A. Cerulo
Misinformation and How to Correct It (Psychology), John Cook et al.
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Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

15

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Behavioral Heterochrony (Anthropology), Victoria Wobber and Brian Hare


Sensational Jurisprudence:
Visual Culture and Human Rights
ALISON DUNDES RENTELN

Abstract
Sensational jurisprudence is a new branch of sociolegal studies that deals with the
five senses and public policy. Because the law privileges the visual, this essay examines social science research about images of suffering and the implications of these
findings. The interdisciplinary scholarship about visual culture emphasizes the negative aspects of humanitarian appeals for funding to aid the distant sufferer, and
it suggests that bombarding the public with graphic depictions of pitiable individuals is counterproductive. Instead, researchers ought to develop methodologies to
ascertain which emotions motivate individuals to engage in global civic action.

INTRODUCTION
Sensational jurisprudence is an innovative field that examines interrelationships among the five senses and public policy. As a branch of sociolegal
studies, this highly interdisciplinary scholarship involves researchers in
anthropology, law and society, media studies, political science, psychology
sociology, and visual studies. This new field illuminates the intricate inner
workings of legal orders and considers policies that attempt to regulate
phenomena that affect the senses (Bently & Flynn, 1996).1 Because modern
legal systems privilege the “visual” (Hibbits, 1994),2 this essay considers
research about whether images play a significant role in alleviating suffering
in human rights and humanitarian crises particularly when states violate
international law.
1. In 1996, Flynn noted the novelty of taking up the law as part of the study of senses: “While interest
in the senses has occupied the attention of the social sciences recently, that theme has been little explored
in legal discourse” (p. 1). Sensational jurisprudence poses a set of questions: “How does the law sense?
What does law understand to be the nature of our senses? How does the law constitute our notions of the
senses? How does law control or regulate our senses? How does law use our senses? Which senses does
law use” (p. 2).
2. In the introduction to Law and the Senses, Bentley notes that some contributors criticize the tendency in Anglo-American law to favor visual and suggests that the hierarchy among the senses should
be reconsidered (1996, pp. 8–9).
Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Edited by Robert Scott and Stephen Kosslyn.
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 978-1-118-90077-2.

1

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

SCOPE OF SENSATIONAL JURISPRUDENCE
This body of research encompasses a wide range of studies on legal aspects
of controversies related to all five senses. For example, sensational jurisprudence about touch considers policies on bodily reaction to pain and permanent body alteration (Bibbings, 1996; Classen, 2012). It also covers the social
significance of smell (Classen, Howes, & Synnott, 1994; Corbin, 1988) along
with the regulation of scent through trademark law (Maniatis, 1996) and regulation of unpleasant odors (Howes, 1989/1990, Artis & Silvester, 1986).3
Preeminent scholars David Howes and Constance Classen have published
important monographs that identify new developments such as “sensory
ethnography.”4
Another key area, the study of sound policies, is part of an emerging subfield known as acoustic jurisprudence. The gist of this approach is an argument
that “we must learn to listen to the law” (Parker, 2011, p. 989) in our consideration of how to establish a harmonious “soundscape.”5 Some of this research
addresses how courts deal with oral testimony or “auditory reception of oral
evidence” (Halder, 1996, p. 124). A vast number of laws worldwide regulate
noise, or unwanted sound, often via nuisance or noise pollution. Controversies have arisen concerning the intensity, frequency, and duration of sound
emissions. Regulations also stipulate various requirements for the level of
noise emitted by products (Hammer, Swinburn, & Neitzel, 2014, p. 118).
Interesting litigation concerns the regulation of loud religious sounds
(Weiner, 2014), and the historical contexts during which these disputes
occurred. In the twenty-first century, for instance, numerous conflicts
around the world have revolved around the Islamic call to prayer or adhan
(Renteln, 2014). Legal control of noise seems to be based on the tacit assumption that citizens deserve peace and quiet. This presumption on the part of
governmental officials that there is a human right to quiet, not complete
silence but the relative lack of noise, is a foundational principle recognized
by most modern political systems.
Anglo-American legal systems rely heavily on visual culture. Indeed,
some question the law’s favoring the visual sense or “ocularcentrism.” Even
though there is a well-known adage that “seeing is believing” (Dundes,
1980) reflecting the conventional wisdom that people tend to embrace what
they observe themselves, this does not guarantee that courts will necessarily
be influenced by strong evidence documenting injustices. For instance,
the police who were prosecuted for brutally beating Rodney King in Los
3. For a discussion of smell pollution, see Classen, Howes, and Synnott, pp. 169–172. For “stink lawsuits,” see Huber (2014).
4. David Howes, Professor of Anthropology at Concordia University, is founding editor of the journal
The Senses and Society. Dr Constance Classen edited a six-volume series on the cultural history of the senses
to be published by Berg. See Howes and Classen (2013).
5. Schafer (1976) famously coined the term soundscape.

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

3

Angeles were ultimately acquitted, despite the fact that the jury watched
a videotape of the actual attacks. This suggests that even though there is a
tendency to assume that visual culture will influence behavior, this may not
necessarily be the case.
One branch of research that addresses the relationship between visual culture and human behavior concerns graphic images of suffering that are disseminated in attempts to mobilize humanitarian action. In what follows, I
discuss some of the major contributions to this debate and difficulties associated with this line of research. Finally, I offer suggestions for future studies
to investigate the effects of images in human rights and humanitarian campaigning to promote compliance with international legal standards.
VISUAL CULTURE AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Images of suffering are pervasive in the media, and yet, it is unclear exactly
how they affect public perceptions of gross violations of human rights and
humanitarian crises, whether they promote enforcement of international
standards, or if they help pave the way to significant social change. Even
though human rights advocates tend to assume that exposure to information about serious governmental misconduct and the dissemination
of photographs of atrocities leads to mass action via “the mobilization of
shame” (Borer, 2012; Keenan, 2004), many scholars argue that continuously
bombarding the public with visual culture of this sort may cause individuals
to become desensitized (Cohen, 2001; Seu, 2013) and result in what some
have termed compassion fatigue (Moeller, 1999) or demand fatigue (Cohen &
Seu, 2002).6 The question central to this body of research is whether images
of suffering have the potential to help people in empirically demonstrable
ways (Ritchin, 2013).
Scholars have certainly written about social uses of images (see, e.g., Gombrich, 1999), but their purpose has rarely been the empirical demonstration
of their effects. In addition, while there are many different types of imagery
and many forms of art that do raise awareness of social injustices (Martinez
& Renteln, 2014), the social science literature about the effects of images
of suffering and the mobilization of shame tends to focus principally on
photographs.7 Despite widespread use of still images in these campaigns,
remarkably little evidence exists documenting their actual impact in society.
The importance of studying the role images play is greater now than
ever before. While photographs were a key technological innovation of the
6. Some refer to the constant 24-h news coverage of international conflicts and the possible impact on
foreign policy the “the CNN effect,” even though the effect is not based solely on CN.
7. Increasingly, scholars are turning to the moving image. For an overview of human rights films, see
Gibney (2013).

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

twentieth century, digitized social media constitute the new form of visual
communication of the twenty-first century (Ritchin, 2013), which means a
larger potential for influence. Because images are disseminated much more
easily via the Internet by citizen-journalists armed with camera-phones
(Anden-Papadopoulos, 2013), it is crucial to determine their social and
behavioral consequences. Research that examines the circumstances under
which visual culture has a positive impact on human rights and humanitarian efforts could make a significant contribution to progressive social
movements (Gregory, 2006).8 These images are deployed to exert pressure
on governments to stop abuses and to generate revenue for NGOs (Seu,
2013, p. 2).
What is the current state of the existing literature on the influence of images
of suffering? Since the 1970s, the Western media have been saturated with
many pictures of starving children in Africa. This “iconography of famine”
generated a discussion as to what constitute ethical uses of images and led
some commentators to argue that the photographs had unmistakably negative consequences for perceptions of Africans (Campbell, 2011; Graham,
2014). The recurring image of a famished child reinforces a negative stereotype of victimhood that implies individuals there lack agency. Some go so far
as to compare images of suffering and atrocity pictures to obscene material
(A. Kleinman & J. Kleinman, 1996). They make the “allusion to pornography” because of “ … the way imagery of brutality and violence appeals to
our prurient interests and the exploitative nature of graphic imagery of suffering victims” (Pruce, 2013, p. 221; see also Linfield, 2010, pp. 40–42). It is
this type of representation that many have condemned in harsh terms.
Various problems are associated with picturing those in dire need of
humanitarian assistance. By showing extreme depictions of suffering, the
viewer may turn away or feel a sense of hopelessness. There is widespread
concern that constant exposure leads to feelings of helplessness, frustration,
and disengagement. By inundating members of the public with representations of suffering continuously and over long periods of time, the NGOs
seeking financial assistance for victims of famine and other natural disasters
found, contrary to expectation, that some people reach the conclusion that
giving aid does not appear to help in the long run. Research reveals that
respondents are concerned about whether their contributions will make a
difference, so signs of progress may prove to be quite important (Radley &
Kennedy, 1997, p. 450).
The worry often expressed has been that the fleeting presentation of crises
fails to provide the historical and political context. By lacking careful explanations of the structural dimensions of global social problems, viewers are not
8. Sam Gregory is the head of Witness, an organization based in New York, that trains activists to use
videos and images generally to raise awareness and to hold governments accountable.

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

5

afforded insight into the need for long-term approaches to poverty reduction,
political reform, and other necessary social changes.
Commentators ordinarily refer to a few images to advance their arguments
about the consequences of deploying photographs. Those who assume that
images matter refer to the picture of Kim Phuc taken by Nick Ut that won him
a Pulitzer prize (Jones, 2014), the youngest individual to receive one. This is
the famous photograph of a little girl wounded by napalm, running naked
down the road that became associated with shifting public perceptions of
the Vietnam War.9 This iconic photograph is often mentioned in the context
of assertions regarding the power of the image (Kaplan, 2011, p. 262; Miller,
2012).
Those who question the ethical aspects of using images often refer to Kevin
Carter’s Pulitzer prize-winning photograph of a little girl starving in the
Sudan who appears threatened by a nearby vulture perched uncomfortably
close to her. The viewer asks whether the photojournalist ought to have
allowed the bird to come right next to her and is left wondering whether he
eventually rescued her, after taking the picture (A. Kleinman & J. Kleinman,
1996).
Some uses of imagery in advertisements have led to widespread outrage
and raised ethical concerns about exploitation, for example, a series of
commercial ads by Benetton in the 1990s (Arthur, 1992). In the context
of human rights campaigns, scholars admit that it is, for the most part,
unknown whether these visual representations can accomplish their express
goals of social change (Borer, 2012, p. 72). That shocking ads may attract
public attention also leaves open the question of whether they should
be employed as a matter of principle. The issue is whether the potential
benefit of using powerful images to inspire humanitarian action can ever
justify the violation of the rights of the subjects represented in them. The
answer to the question may hinge on whether one takes a consequentialist
or deontological approach to global ethics.
FOUNDATIONAL RESEARCH
Scholars in many fields have asked about the actual power of images.
Although representations unquestionably affect people, it is difficult to
measure their precise influence. One reason for the challenge is the simple
fact that symbols, including pictorial representations, generally influence
individuals at a subconscious level, which means that they are largely
unaware of the ways in which they react to them, if they do at all. Yet, the
9. This famous photo is incorporated in a satirical work by the British street artist, Banksy, “Can’t
Beat the Feeling,” which shows her holding hands with Ronald MacDonald and Mickey mouse in a scene
strangely reminiscent of Dorothy on the yellow brick road in Oz.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

fact that it is difficult to ascertain the effects of images does not mean, of
course, however, that they lack power. Even if it cannot be demonstrated
that they lead to action, they may contribute to shifts in public opinion or
cognitive change. It is also possible that their effect is to elicit an emotional
response like compassion without necessarily inducing action (Johnson,
2011).
One body of research focuses on the use of photographs in advertisements
for charities, that is, aid agencies (Chang & Lee, 2009). An important study
investigates whether displaying certain types of pictures, happy-faced and
sad-faced victims will result in stronger feelings of sympathy and more donations (Small & Verrochi, 2009). They concluded that “emotional contagion”
occurs, that individuals who observe sad-faced victims will “catch” the feeling of sadness, develop feelings of sympathy, and that this generally results
in more prosocial behavior. In some circumstances, this tendency can sometimes be diminished by cognitive processing that occurs when individual
are presented with information about the victims’ plight. That is, where people thought with their hearts, happier images predisposed them to give, but
this might be undercut by countervailing texts. Other research using pictures
in experiments found that more negative images correlated with potentially
higher levels of donations (Burt & Strongman, 2005). One limitation of studies of this kind is the “presumption of universality,” namely a presumption
that all individuals respond similarly to facial expressions.
An early study of visual rhetoric by Linda Scott in which she argues for
a cross-cultural approach to pictorial research highlights the importance of
examining different social characteristics of the audience because of the possibility that people, depending on their backgrounds, may react differently
to them (Radley & Kennedy, 1997; Scott, 1994). This insight appears to have
been missed by many subsequent scholars who seem to assume that an image
will lead to a specific response, irrespective of the identities of members of
the audience.
The literature on images in campaigns by aid agencies emphasizes a few
key points. First, photographs that portray victims as suffering appear to
result in increased donations. Second, the tendency to depict mostly Africans
conveys the impression that this is the reality of all Africans. This “othering”
of Africans generated a stereotypical representation of them as pitiable, supporting the maligned “politics of pity.” (NGOs consistently wish to emphasize that they no longer use “flies in the eyes” images of African children.)
Third, because of seeing similar representations of suffering over time for the
same geographical area, the public may eventually question whether funding
actually contributes to any lasting change. The images convey the impression
that the situation remains hopeless and that there is no reason to continue

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

7

donating to aid agencies. That is, although showing some degree of suffering may be effective, beyond some threshold, it is counterproductive, from
the aid agency’s perspective.
Two often-cited scholars call this approach into question. Sontag (2003),
in her influential book, Regarding the Pain of Others, argues that individuals
turn away from excessive suffering without, however, presenting empirical
proof to support this contention. Cohen (2001), in his classic study, States of
Denial identifies a set of psychological mechanisms by means of which individuals absolve themselves from responsibility for assisting those in distress.
These works famously raised the question as to whether visual culture actually encourages individuals who have exposed to images of suffering to take
any sort of humanitarian action. The desire to motivate the “unresponsive
bystander” with visual culture may be sincere, but as of yet, the approach
appears to be largely ineffectual. Whether images do sometimes influence
people and, if so, in what ways, remains to be determined in future research.
Some studies have examined the communications strategies employed by
key NGOs. Their role in promoting humanitarian causes is highly dependent on media coverage, and this evolving relationship has been the subject
of research (Cottle & Nolan, 2007). To attract sufficient coverage to achieve
their objectives, they may need to deploy graphic images, but this conflicts
with their humanitarian goals of promoting human dignity and egalitarianism. That NGOs experience tensions in the strategies of their policy and
fundraising departments is well known (Orgad, 2013, pp. 300–302).
Much existing research highlights the distance between the viewer and
those in need, and the need to overcome this divide, so the viewer can
identify with the suffering of those depicted abroad, the so-called distant
sufferer. Insofar as imagery can successfully create a connection between
them, it is thought likely to lead the spectator to act. Sometimes, this
connection is characterized as evoking feelings of empathy in the viewer
(Cikara, Bruneau, & Saxe, 2011; Kaplan, 2011).10 Ultimately, the question is
whether the process of taking away parochialism as a barrier will actually
mobilize humanitarian action.
A landmark study, Media Representation and the Global Imagination, by Shani
Orgad provides a careful examination of cultural constructions in campaigns.
Using qualitative discourse analysis, she considers a set of campaigns to find
out whether they create a sense of intimacy between the viewer and the “distant sufferer.” In this superb book, Orgad (2012, p. 187) argues persuasively
that: “ … the emphasis on symbolically annihilating distance, which seems to
be driving the work of media representation, can be positive and enabling,
but is also constraining and even repressive.”
10. A vast literature on empathy and the unresponsive bystander is relevant here. Readers may wish
to consult works by C.D. Batson, Nancy Miller, and others.

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Another major scholarly investigation of public reactions to images of suffering is the monograph by Seu (2013), Passivity Generation: Human Rights
and Everyday Morality. In this incisive and nuanced analysis, she advances
the argument that we need a more nuanced interpretation of spectator reactions to representations. Her brilliant interpretation of psychosocial factors
suggests that images of suffering can result in viewers “switching off” (Seu,
2013, p. 180).
A 3-year large-scale study, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, based at the
LSE Polis Center, and undertaken by Orgad, Seu, and colleagues, found that
the public is often cynical about NGO use of images in campaigns. When
those interviewed were asked about their reactions to photographs depicting
individuals in dire need of assistance, members of the public indicated that
they sometimes distrusted ads that made them feel manipulated (Orgad &
Vella, 2012).
The research on visual culture and human rights generally discusses
whether images elicit empathy, sympathy, and related notions of sympathy
and compassion.11 By contrast, whether and to what extent other emotions
such as anger, grief, or sadness might spur individuals to act has received
relatively little attention (Hoijer & Olausson, 2011).
Other scholarship about imagery connected to human rights issues is
not concerned with the social effects of imagery, but rather with the ways
in which framing affects public perceptions of human rights issues. Some
research centers on the misrepresentations of cultural communities (see, e.g.,
Hesford, 2011). Oftentimes, the individuals who are the subjects in photos
are shown without any explanation of historical context (Malkki, 1996). The
viewer cannot comprehend the political circumstances that gave rise to the
crisis in which the individuals find themselves.
The growing concern about ethical issues in photographing victims
resulted in the adoption of a Code of Conduct for several large NGOs
(Nelson, 2007). One of the primary considerations was whether subjects
give informed consent, particularly if they live in societies in which there
is not practice of obtaining it. Furthermore, given that such a large number
of campaigns rely on using images of children, because of the apparent
preference of NGOs and photojournalists, there is evident concern about
ensuring that parents give consent to the use of photos taken of their
children.

11. Small and Verrochi (2009, p. 778) distinguish between sympathy and empathy: “Empathy involves
experiencing the feelings experienced by another person. In contrast, sympathy is an emotional concern
for the welfare of another person … This suggests that empathy resulting from contagion also often generates sympathy”. For a study delineating different forms of compassion, see Hoijer (2004), pp. 522–523.

Sensational Jurisprudence: Visual Culture and Human Rights

9

LIMITATIONS OF EXISTING SCHOLARSHIP
The studies conducted to date have most frequently used images of children.
The social science experiments and pretesting of images by large NGOs
involves focus groups of citizens in England. Furthermore, because the
sample size is ordinarily quite small, and the composition is not diverse
enough, it is not possible to generalize from the findings. Those who have
conducted studies call for more “audience” research to examine how the
public responds to differing types of imagery is needed. As Hoijer (2011,
p. 513) has said: “There are especially few empirical studies of audiences’
reactions to and interpretations of the media exposure of distant suffering.” Some contend that the conservative approach of American media
regarding bloodless imagery may not be shared and suggest that this may
influence audience reactions (Figenschou, 2011, p. 242; Kennedy, 2008,
p. 287; Perez-Duenas, Rivas, Oyediran, Acosta-Mesas, & Branas-Garza,
2012). Moreover, it will be important to ascertain differing responses based
on social characteristics such as cultural background (Radley & Kennedy,
1997; Seu, 2013).
FUTURE RESEARCH: STUDYING VISUAL CULTURE
IN HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGNS
Research is necessary to figure out when visual culture succeeds in generating public support for positive change. Through carefully designed studies
with cultural diverse subjects, social scientists can investigate how differing
groups react to depictions of various human rights issues. Future studies will
have to consider not only still images but also the rapid dissemination of
videos via social media, YouTube, and even video games. It remains to be
seen how videos that “go viral” contribute to the success and failure of specific human rights and humanitarian campaigns.
Researchers cannot assume that individuals in vastly different societies
respond similarly to imagery. A much more nuanced approach to “audience”
reaction will be necessary for groundbreaking research on media effects
related to human rights.12 It is worth asking if social characteristics such as
age, ethnicity, gender, and religious affiliation appear to influence reactions
to particular images.
More studies of how viewers in other countries respond to visual culture
are crucial for serious social science. Just as cultural psychology has demonstrated the fallacy that individuals conceptualize their relationship to the
12. For a trenchant critique of existing approaches to the analysis of distant suffering, see Fuyuki
Kurasawa (2009).

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EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

collective, similarly scholars who investigate the significance of imagery patterns for diverse cultural communities will need to consider the context of
viewers.13
One of the main challenges that lie ahead is studying the positive dimensions of human rights campaigns that include images. Instead of always
assuming that the imagery will reinforce nefarious stereotypes and cause
harm, scholars might conduct impact assessments of photographs that contribute to positive social change. These may reveal the features of successful
campaigns that resonate with different types of people and motivate them
to take faster steps toward global civic engagement.
CONCLUSION
Images are powerful and often play a key role in human rights and
humanitarian campaigns. Although they are deployed by organizations
lacking resources to test their impact, they help shape public understanding
of international affairs. Having a deeper understanding of the precise
manner in which visual culture influences decision-makers and the public
would benefit those concerned with bringing about positive social change.
Social scientists can contribute to humanitarian efforts through research of
this kind.
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FURTHER READING
Crook, T. (2010). Comparative media law and ethics. London, England: Routledge.

ALISON DUNDES RENTELN SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Alison Dundes Renteln is a Professor of Political Science, Anthropology,
Law, and Public Policy at the University of Southern California where she
teaches international law and human rights. A graduate of Harvard (History
and Literature), she has a PhD in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the
University of California, Berkeley, and a JD from the USC Gould School of
Law. Her publications include The Cultural Defense (Oxford, 2004), Folk Law

14

EMERGING TRENDS IN THE SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

(University of Wisconsin, 1995), Multicultural Jurisprudence: (Hart, 2009), and
Cultural Law (Cambridge, 2010). She has taught judges, lawyers, court interpreters, jury consultants, and police officers at meetings of the American
Bar Association, National Association of Women Judges, North American
South Asian Bar Association, American Society of Trial Consultants, and others. She has collaborated with the United Nation on the implementation of
the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, lectured on comparative legal ethics in Bangkok and Manila at ABA-sponsored conferences,
and served on several California civil rights commissions and the California committee of Human Rights Watch. In Fall 2013, she was a Fellow at
Stanford’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences where she
conducted research on incentives for civic engagement including the legal
duty to rescue. In Spring 2014 she was a Human Rights Fellow at the School
of Advanced Study at the University of London.
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