In this modern world of endless social media scrolling and heightened divisions, do you ever find yourself looking for something to be angry about? Perhaps you click into Twitter with the intention of seeing what the "other side" has to say fully expecting to get riled up about it? If so, you're not alone. Many of us have found ourselves caught in this "outrage as entertainment" cycle. Are we addicted to outrage? What purpose does outrage serve? Is this type of morally cloaked anger prosocial or are we merely feeding into a self-serving neurobiological brain loop when we go looking for injustices? What biases underpin our perceptions? And what can we do to step out of the outrage cycle and into empathic, unifying awareness?

Toxic otherness turns others into enemies. This ego- and mind-derived phenomenon creates and sustains a war—real or imagined—between the perceived self and the perceived other. Keep reading to find out what toxic otherness looks like and how to dismantle its presence in your life.