This is the article: Dehumanization.

In psychology, projection is a theory in which someone sees good and bad traits in another person. It is considered a defense mechanism someone uses to blame another person for his or her unpleasant ideas or impulses. The person projects, or passes off, the things he or she does not want to deal with subconsciously. While good behaviors and characteristics can be projected onto someone else, it is mainly negative things that are projected. By projecting these things onto another person, we are protected from thoughts, feelings, and emotions that we do not want to deal with at the time.

Projection is used in a process called dehumanization. This is a thought process in which groups who are involved in some sort of struggle start to see each other as less than human. They make their opponents or enemies seem less than worthy of their time. In doing this, they can be mean or violent toward them and not feel as bad as they normally would. Some people use projection to dehumanize others, especially their enemies.

When fighting an enemy, projection can help armies protect themselves and their colleagues. They can project the ideas that their opponents are bad, evil people who would hurt them if given the chance. Soldiers do not give the enemy the chance – they need to strike first! To emotionally deal with hurting their enemies, the soldiers need to use projection to dehumanize them. They project their own feelings and ideas of the others as violent and aggressive. This makes them less worthy of being treated fairly. In this way, shooting at them does not take as big a psychological toll on the soldiers. The enemies are less than human, so they should not be treated in humane ways.

Dehumanization makes it easier, psychologically, to persecute other groups. Opponents create negative stereotypes of their enemies. This will help them defend any aggressive actions they take against their foes. For example, if one gang of thugs decides to fight another gang, they project ideas that the “bad gang” is evil or less than human. They project their anger and aggression toward the bad gang onto the members of that group. That helps make them seem less moral and more deserving of violence. The “good gang” lumps the others into a category as subhuman so that they can justify vicious behavior toward them.

People participate in projection and dehumanization to help them with their group identity. They want to feel like a solid part of a group, so they work to make their opponents look bad or evil. By projecting a group’s negative traits onto their enemies, the group can feel more of a bond. They can lash out at their enemies, whom they have dehumanized, and work with their own group to fight and justify their violence.

According to the article, how does projection affect the enemy images? (Site 1)