The present research explores the distinct effects of animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization on willingness to help natural disaster victims. We examined Japanese and Haitians, two national groups recently struck by earthquakes. We showed that Italian participants differently dehumanized the two outgroups: Japanese were attributed low human nature (dehumanized as automata), whereas Haitians were attributed low human uniqueness (dehumanized as animal-like). Ninety participants were then randomly assigned to the Japanese or Haitian target group condition. Mediation analyses showed that animalistic dehumanization decreased willingness to help Haitians, whereas mechanistic dehumanization decreased willingness to help Japanese, even when controlling for attitudes. Importantly, reduced empathy explained the effects of both forms of dehumanization on intergroup helping.

During intractable conflicts, "competitive victimhood" refers to the subjective belief that one's own ingroup has

A great deal of research has investigated gender‐related objectification. In the current work, we aim to extend the empirical research on this phenomenon to the working domain. Consistent with several theoretical assumptions, we expected that factory workers would be objectified as a consequence of their work. In Study 1, we showed that each of the critical features of factory work (i.e., repetitiveness of movements, fragmentation of activities and dependence on the machine) significantly affected the view of the worker as an instrument (vs. a human being) and as less able to experience human mental states. Coherently, we found that factory workers, unlike artisans, were perceived as more instrument‐like (Study 2) and as less able to experience mental states (Study 3) when participants were asked to focus on the target's manual activities rather than on the target as a person. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.

The current work aimed to extend the burgeoning literature on working objectification by investigating the effects of particular job activities on self-perception. By integrating relevant theoretical reflections with recent empirical evidence, we expected that performing objectifying (i.e., repetitive, fragmented, and other-directed) tasks would affect participants' self-objectification and, in turn, their belief in personal free will. In three studies, we consistently found that performing a manual (Study 1 and Study 2) or a computer (Study 3) objectifying task (vs. a non-objectifying task and vs. the baseline condition) led participants to objectify themselves in terms of both decreased self-attribution of human mental states (Study 1 and Study 3) and increased self-perception of being instrument-like (Study 2 and Study 3). Crucially, this increased self-objectification mediated the relationship between performing an objectifying activity and the participants' decreased belief in personal free will. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are considered.

Empathy—putting oneself in another’s shoes—has been described as the “social glue” that holds society together. This study investigates how exposure to sexist video games can decrease empathy for female violence victims. We hypothesized that playing violent-sexist video games would increase endorsement of masculine beliefs, especially among participants who highly identify with dominant and aggressive male game characters. We also hypothesized that the endorsement of masculine beliefs would reduce empathy toward female violence victims. Participants (N = 154) were randomly assigned to play a violent-sexist game, a violent-only game, or a non-violent game. After gameplay, measures of identification with the game character, traditional masculine beliefs, and empathy for female violence victims were assessed. We found that participants’ gender and their identification with the violent male video game character moderated the effects of the exposure to sexist-violent video games on masculine beliefs. Our results supported the prediction that playing violent-sexist video games increases masculine beliefs, which occurred for male (but not female) participants who were highly identified with the game character. Masculine beliefs, in turn, negatively predicted empathic feelings for female violence victims. Overall, our study shows who is most affected by the exposure to sexist-violent video games, and why the effects occur. (200 words)

The relationships between subjective status and perceived legitimacy are important for understanding the extent to which people with low status are complicit in their oppression. We use novel data from 66 samples and 30 countries ( N = 12,788) and find that people with higher status see the social system as more legitimate than those with lower status, but there is variation across people and countries. The association between subjective status and perceived legitimacy was never negative at any levels of eight moderator variables, although the positive association was sometimes reduced. Although not always consistent with hypotheses, group identification, self‐esteem, and beliefs in social mobility were all associated with perceived legitimacy among people who have low subjective status. These findings enrich our understanding of the relationship between social status and legitimacy.

Research has shown that exposure to violent media increases aggression. However, the neural underpinnings of violent-media-related aggression are poorly understood.Additionally, few experiments have tested hypotheses concerning how to reduce violent-media-related aggression. In this experiment, we focused on a brain area involved in the regulation of aggressive impulses-the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC). We tested the hypothesis that brain polarization through anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over rVLPFC reduces aggression related to violent video games. Participants (N = 79) were randomly assigned to play a violent or a nonviolent video game while receiving anodal or sham stimulation. Afterward, participants aggressed against an ostensible partner using the Taylor aggression paradigm (Taylor Journal of Personality, 35, 297-310, 1967), which measures both unprovoked and provoked aggression. Among those who received sham stimulation, unprovoked aggression was significantly higher for violent-game players than for nonviolent-game players. Among those who received anodal stimulation, unprovoked aggression did not differ for violent-and nonviolent-game players. Thus, anodal stimulation reduced unprovoked aggression in violent-game players. No significant effects were found for provoked aggression, suggesting tit-for-tat responding. This experiment sheds light on one possible neural underpinning of violent-media-related aggression-the rVLPFC, a brain area involved in regulating negative feelings and aggressive impulses.Keywords Violent video games . Aggression . Self-control . Taylor aggression paradigm (TAP) . Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) When I was running Atari, violence against humanoid figures was not allowed. We'd let you shoot at a tank . . . but we drew the line at shooting at people, with blood splattering everywhere.-Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari Nolan Bushnell, one of the founding fathers of the video game industry, Bdrew the line^at shooting at people. However, other video game developers have crossed over that line. In many violent video games today, players can kill realistic human-like characters using a wide variety of weapons. Playing violent video games is not just Bharmless fun,^either. Numerous studies have shown that violent video games can increase aggression (Anderson et al., 2010;Greitemeyer & Mügge, 2014). A recent report from the American Psychological Association (2015) concluded, BThe research demonstrates a consistent relation between violent video game use and increases in aggressive behavior.Ĥ owever, little is known about the neural mechanisms involved in the link between exposure to violent media and aggression. One possible mechanism is the prefrontal cortex, which regulates executive functions such as self-control (Carnagey, Anderson, & Bartholow, 2007). In particular, the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (rVLPFC) has been implicated in various forms of self-control, including motor control (Chikazoe et al., 20...

In this moment of increasing social inequalities after the Great Recession