Harnessing Dehumanization Theory, Modern Media, and an Intervention Tournament to Reduce Support for Retributive War Crimes

Abstract

Dehumanization–denying or overlooking another’s humanity–is a multifaceted phenomenon, and scholars focusing on different forms of dehumanization have reached different conclusions regarding its role in violence. Those conceptualizing dehumanization as the (relatively subtle) denial of another’s mental capacities argue that dehumanization’s role in violence is overstated because perpetrators often recognize their victims possess such capacities. Conversely, those conceptualizing dehumanization as the explicit, blatant denial of another’s humanity argue that dehumanization facilitates violence by stripping others of the moral elevation distinguishing humans from “lower” animals. Study 1 integrated these perspectives to provide a nuanced account of dehumanization’s role in violence. Investigating attitudes toward Russian soldiers following their illegal invasion of Ukraine, we found support for committing reciprocal war crimes to be greatest among Americans who explicitly, blatantly dehumanized the soldiers and attributed them the most mind. This suggests dehumanizers can recognize some aspects of a target’s humanity while denying others. Moreover, we found explicit, blatant dehumanization to be a particularly strong predictor of war-crime support. Therefore, in a nationally-representative sample, Study 2 tested an intervention that reduced Americans’ explicit, blatant dehumanization of Russian soldiers. This led to a downstream reduction in their war-crime support, suggesting that reducing explicit, blatant dehumanization can attenuate extreme violence.

A Family-Resemblances Framework for Dehumanization Research

“…Here, facilitating "parasocial" contact via immersive media may be more effective because the intervention content can be tailored to highlight specific aspects of the target's humanity, such as their moral agency, remorse, and willingness to change (Bruneau et al, 2022;Landry et al, 2023b).…”