Dehumanization: trends, insights, and challenges

Kteily, Nour; Landry, Alexander

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2021.12.003

Cited by 86 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 124 publications

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“…This subtly dehumanizing mode of perception occurs in a variety of contexts (e.g., when encountering norm violators […]) and predicts downstream consequences like moralistic punishment […]. (Kteily & Landry, 2022, p. 223)…”

Section: What Is Pdt?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptual dehumanization theory: A critique.

Over¹,

Cook²

2023

Psychological Review

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Central to perceptual dehumanization theory (PDT) is the claim that full engagement of a putative module for the visual analysis of faces is necessary in order to recognize the humanity or personhood of observed individuals. According to this view, the faces of outgroup members do not engage domain-specific face processing fully or typically and are instead processed in a manner akin to how the brain processes objects. Consequently, outgroup members are attributed less humanity than ingroup members. To the extent that groups are perceptually dehumanized, they are hypothesized to be vulnerable to harm. In our article, we challenge several of the fundamental assumptions underlying this theory and question the empirical evidence in its favor. We begin by illustrating the extent to which the existence of domain-specific face processing is contested within the vision science literature. Next, we interrogate empirical evidence that appears to support PDT and suggest that alternative explanations for prominent findings in the field are more likely. In the closing sections of the article, we reflect on the broader logic of the theory and highlight some underlying inconsistencies.

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Section: What Is Pdt?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptual dehumanization theory: A critique.

Over¹,

Cook²

2023

Psychological Review

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“…Dehumanization has far‐reaching consequences for intergroup relations (Kteily & Landry, 2022). Research has shown, for example, that U.S. residents who scored high for dehumanizing Mexican immigrants were more likely to cast them in threatening terms, withhold sympathy from them, and support measures designed to bar their entry and deport them, including surveillance, detention, expulsion, and even erecting a wall between the United States and Mexico.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can conservatives who (de)humanize immigrants the most be able to support them? The power of imagined positive contact

Borinca

Çelik

Storme

2022

J Applied Social Pyschol

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Despite studies examining political ideology, group dehumanization, and intergroup contact as predictors of intergroup support and affect, research on their interplay in shaping such outcomes has been limited. In fact, considering the possibility that conservatives might view immigrants in various ways (as more or less human) is important to understand the impact of interventions (positive imagined contact) on intergroup relations. The results of two experiments (N = 671) with U.S. citizens in relation to two outgroups—Muslim immigrants in Experiment 1 and Mexican immigrants in Experiment 2—consistently showed that imagined positive contact condition (vs. control/no contact condition) influenced intergroup support (i.e., in both experiments) and positive emotions (i.e., in Experiment 2) more for individuals who endorsed a conservative ideology and scored high for dehumanizing immigrants. Participants’ willingness to attribute positive emotions to outgroup members ultimately explained the observed effects. In this research, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for intergroup relations and outgroup dehumanization.

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“…Relatedly, invoking morality in speech may harden existing beliefs and attitudes (Ben-Nun Bloom & Levitan, 2011;Haslam, 2006;Kteily & Landry, 2022). Consistent with these ideas, studied the link between language and social engagement online using a sample of three Twitter topics and found that the presence of "moral-emotional words" (which these authors differentiate from purely "moral" and "emotional" words) in messages increased their sharing "by approximately 20% per word" (p. 7316); a subsequent meta-analysis by the same research group estimated that the addition of each moral-emotional word increased the probability of sharing by 12% (Brady & van Bavel, 2021).…”

Section: Overuse Of Moral Language Dampens Content Engagement On Soci...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Overuse of Moral Language Dampens Content Engagement on Social Media

Candia¹,

Atari²,

Kteily³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Online social-media platforms are a vital arena in which socio-political perspectives are put forth, debated, and spread. Prior work suggests that certain moral-emotional language drives online contagion, but theoretical and empirical findings remain debated, inhibiting constructive interventions. We substantially advance this ongoing debate using a diverse range of topics and both mainstream and extremist social media platforms. We find two countervailing dynamics predict the rise and fall of posting engagement online. First, we confirm that content infused with a greater number of moral words is associated with increased engagement; still, contrasting with prior work, we find no evidence that it is driven specifically by moral-emotional words as opposed to the more general and larger lexicon of moral language. Second, we identify a striking reversal in the relationship between moral language and engagement, a phenomenon we call “moral penalty.” We find that as the ratio of moral to non-moral words surpasses a threshold, the process of engagement around a post reverses with marked decreases in engagement and online diffusion. These findings help clarify links between morality and online engagement and contagion: infusing messages with moral language increases their spread to a point after which embedding posts in morality may backfire.

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Dehumanization: trends, insights, and challenges

Cited by 86 publications

References 124 publications

Perceptual dehumanization theory: A critique.

Perceptual dehumanization theory: A critique.

Can conservatives who (de)humanize immigrants the most be able to support them? The power of imagined positive contact

Overuse of Moral Language Dampens Content Engagement on Social Media

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