Dehumanisation Flashcards
(32 cards)
Define dehumanisation.
The perception of others as belonging to a lower order of humanity. Denial of humanness to others.
How has dehumanisation developed over the years?
Some early theories in 70s-90s.
Infrahumanisation in 2000s - Leyens.
Dual model of dehumanisation - 2006 - Haslam.
Mind Perception - 2007 - Gray.
What are the two main parts of Leyens’ model of intrahumanisation?
Primary + secondary emotions.
What are primary emotions?
Biologically based and shared with other primates.
What are secondary emotions?
Related to social interaction and are specific of human beings.
Explain Haslam’s dual model of dehumanisation.
Human uniqueness - intelligence, rationality, self-control. Animalistic dehumanisation.
Human nature - warmth, emotional, agency, flexibility. Mechanistic dehumanisation.
Explain Gray’s mind perception.
There are two dimensions - agency + experience.
Agency - thinking, self-control, communication.
Experience - emotions, consciousness, personality.
Explain Formanowicz’s agency and communion.
Two dimensions - agency and communion.
More agents = more human.
Communion has no effect on perceived humanness.
Name some ways to measure dehumanisation.
Use attribute-based measures - emotions, words, traits (HUvsUH).
Use metaphors-based measures - metaphors, visual.
How is dehumanisation different from prejudice?
Different from mere negative evaluations or in-group favouritism.
Groups who are not target of prejudice can still be dehumanised.
Give an example of where culture has affected perceived humanness.
Bain - European Australians - denial of human nature to East Asian faces.
Chinese people - denial of human uniqueness to White people.
Give two consequences on dehumanisation.
Violence justification - higher justification of violence toward the black suspect after being primed with dehumanisation related to stimuli.
Help - people more likely to help with secondary emotions compared to primary emotions.
How do secondary and primary emotions affect in-group vs out-group?
More solidarity to in-group if the person used secondary emotions.
What happens to helping rates when people are dehumanised?
Helping rates decrease. Less empathy.
Name 4 triggers of dehumanisation.
Threat, disgust, language, behaviours.
Explain a study + results which showed the affects of threat.
Christians given human-related words for another religion. Group seen as threat or not.
Torture rates higher for high threat group.
Explain a study + results which showed the affects of disgust.
Groups that elicit disgust and contempt are a higher target of dehumanisation.
Explain how homophobic language affects dehumanisation levels (Fasoli).
When in the derogatory label condition - heterosexual pps dehumanised homosexuals more. Used more animal-related words.
Do individuals perceive themselves as more or less human than others?
What is the one exception to this?
More. This is called self-humanisation.
When committing a wrongdoing - perceive themselves as less human.
Name the different types of objectification (Nussbaum’s model of objectification).
Instrumentality, denial of autonomy, inertness, fungibility, violability, ownership and denial of subjectivity.
What is sexual objectification?
Where people’s bodies are separated out from their identity and reduced to the status of mere instruments.
Treated as bodies that exist for the use and pleasure of others.
What three types of objectification did Langton add to Nussbaum’s model?
Reduction to body, reduction to appearance, silencing.
What is the sexualised-body inversion hypothesis?
Inverted stimuli picturing humans are more difficult to recognise, however, objects are not effected by inversion.
If woman are perceive as objects, they should be processed as objects. Sexualised women should be easily recognised as women when upright or inverted.
Explain three studies that showed that objectification = dehumanisation (Vaes).
Study 1 - objectified women were associated with less human-related words.
Study 2 - women dehumanised objectified women - more ‘vulgar and superficial’ - distancing motive. Men dehumanised objectified women - sexually attracted to them.
Study 3 - Sex goals led men to focus on women’s appearance more than personality. No effect on women.
