13- Dehumanization Flashcards
1- What is dehumanization?
Dehumanization: Perceptions of people as lacking the mental or physical capacities
of regular human beings
Sumner on Dehumanization
From Folkways (1906):
When Caribs were asked whence they came, they answered “We alone are people. The meaning of the name Kiowa is “real or principle people”. The Lapps call themselves “men” or “human beings”… As a rule it is found that peoples call
themselves “men”. Others are something else– perhaps not defined– but not real
men. In myths the origin of their own group is that of the real human race. They do
not account for the others.”
2- Historical dehumanization and not-so historical.
- see quotes*
Prince Harry:
You can’t kill people if you think of them as people.
3- Older Approaches to Measuring Dehumanization
- Granting everyone “primary
emotions”: Happiness, Pleasure, Excitement, Sadness
Leyens, 2007 - Denial of “secondary”
emotions to outgroup :
Compassion, Tenderness,
Bitterness, Shame
Subtle Dehumanization
Ascription of “Human” Emotions
- Primary Emotions (e.g., “fear, panic”)
vs. Secondary Emotions (e.g., “remorse, embarrassment”)
- Ascribe less secondary emotion to outgroups
* Occurs for both positive and negative emotions!
Participants were presented with positive and negative primary emotions (happy,
angry) and secondary emotions (content, resigned). They were told to circle words that best represented their ingroup (Canarians) or the outgroup (Spaniards).
Results: given more secondary emotions to ingroups and more primary emotions to outgroups
4- Some consequences of dehumanization
Participants read a vignette in which they were told to imagine they had the
opportunity to anonymously break a stranger’s thumb (either to earn $2 million
dollars or because this person was clearly immoral).
- Humanized condition: Described as a 29-year-old man with brown hair and
brown eyes named John, who is “ambitious and imaginative, but also highstrung and insecure”.
- Dehumanized condition: Simply described as a “man”.
- Participants were significantly more likely to report that they would break
the stranger’s thumb for money when he was described in dehumanized
(M = 4.64, SD = 2.14) rather than humanized terms (M = 3.90, SD = 2.36;
t = 2.26, p = 0.025).
5- Less subtle dehumanization
Sample: 5 year olds
Task: How many are human?
Manipulation: The faces are from a foreign land or not
Result: When the kids think they’re foreign, less images are considered ‘human’
6- Implicit dehumanization
Samples of students from first grade, fifth grade, and six grade completed an IAT
measuring association between Spanish (ingroup) and Arab (outgroup) names
with “human” (logic, mature) versus “animal” (wild, feral) words.
- All three samples of students showed ingroup/human, outgroup/Arab
associations on the IAT.
- A follow up study asked students to “connect” each name (either Spanish
or Arab) with a single word (human or animal). Participants chose more
animal-related words for the outgroup members (M = 4.25; SD = 1.72) than
for the ingroup members (M = 3.21; SD = 1.62), t = 6.55, p < .001.
7- Blatant dehumanization
- Early Work
o Bandura et al. (1975)
o Participants “supervised” 3-person group in other room
o If group made wrong decision, give shock
o Overheard experimenter… - Humanized: group is “perceptive & understanding”
- Dehumanized: group is “animalistic, rotten bunch”
- Neutral: No description
Results: Dehumanization lead to more aggression (as measured by intensity of shocks given).
“Ascent of Man” Measure
Using slider to indicate how evolved consider each group to be
Participants:
Americans who were
not members of these
other groups.
Lower 3 groups: mexican immigrants, arab, muslim
Consequences:
-Immigration Opposition
-Less Helping
-Support Militaristic Aggression
-Drone Strike Support
8- When does dehumanization occur?
Threats to the ingroup -> more dehumanization
Ex: 2001…9/11
immediately after Boston marathon attacks
9- Dehumanization and refugee crisis
e.g., ~1,300 representative Czech sample
Blatant dehumanization of muslim refugees… prejudice level: very unfavorable
Consequences:
-Anti-Refugee Policy Support
-Less Asylum Support
-Sign Anti-Refugee Petition
subtle dehumanization, blatant dehumanization and prejudice are related but distinct
10- Meta-dehumanization
Blatant dehumanization:
Green people: I think Blue people are savage brutes
Meta-dehumanization:
Blue people: I think that Green people see my group as if we were a bunch of animals
“They made me feel like I wasn’t human” - Ahmed Mohamed (when he brought a self-made clock to school but his teacher thought it was a bomb and had him arrested)
11- Dehumanization as a vicious cycle
- Dehumanization and meta-dehumanization can then create a vicious cycle.
- Survey of 200 Muslims:
o “Donald Trump sees people from Muslim backgrounds as sub-human”
o “Donald Trump thinks of people from Muslim backgrounds as animal-like” - On a scale of 1 (Did not feel dehumanized at all) to 7 (Felt dehumanized
intensely), average = 5.66 - Muslims who felt more dehumanized were:
o More likely to dehumanize Donald Trump
o More likely to support “violent collective action”
o Less willing to assist counter-terrorism efforts
-Ratings of Meta Dehumanization and Dehumanization of Donald
Trump (on a 7 point scale)
r = .68 ; strong correlation
High power groups can also feel meta-dehumanized
Across multiple studies Kteily and his colleagues also find that privileged high power groups feel meta dehumanized by minority low power groups, and reciprocate with dehumanization.
12- Dehumanization research in the field
-beyond conflict
-decoding dehumanization project
(idk if i need to know this)
