Perceiving mixed valence emotions reduces intergroup dehumanisation

Abstract

To deny others' humanity is one of the most heinous forms of intergroup prejudice. Given evidence that perceiving various forms of complexity in outgroup members reduces intergroup prejudice, we investigated across three experiments whether the novel dimension of emotional complexity, or outgroup members' joint experience of mixed-valence emotions, would also reduce their dehumanisation. Experiment 1 found that perceiving fictitious aliens' experience of the same primary emotions (e.g. sadness) presented in mixed vs. non-mixed valence pairs led to reduced prejudice via attenuated dehumanisation, i.e. attribution of uniquely human emotions. Experiment 2 confirmed these results, using an unfamiliar real-world group as an outgroup target. Experiment 3 used a familiar outgroup and found generally similar effects, reducing social distance through reduced dehumanisation. These processes suggest that an alternate route to reduced dehumanising of outgroups might involve presenting mixed valence emotions.

40 Years of Multiple Social Categorization: A Tool for Social Inclusivity

“…First, the findings speak of the beneficial effects of both perceiving and experiencing multiple social identities in promoting outgroup members' inclusivity in the circle of human and moral concern. In this vein, evidence support the assumption that dealing with perceived complexity of others or the self improves the accuracy of social judgments (see also Prati & Giner-Sorolla, 2018). Our research has shown that multiple categorization can increase attribution of humanness in social judgements, and through the enhanced prosocial choices towards outgroup members even at the expense of ingroup members, at least at the important level of behavioral intentionality (Ajzen & Fishbein 2010).…”

Trolls Without Borders: A Cross-Cultural Examination of Victim Reactions to Verbal and Silent Aggression Online

“…Our finding that ostracism and flaming are both considered equally offensive in the Pakistani context is, however, in line with research on negative self-conscious emotions (e.g., Allpress et al, 2014;Prati and Giner-Sorolla, 2017;Giner-Sorolla, 2019), and would suggest that both flaming and ostracism present a threat to a person's social identity (Chen et al, 2020;Dasborough et al, 2020). This also suggests that physical and verbal aggression is used to rebuff minor social infractions in honor-valuing cultural contexts primarily when face-to-face (Harinck et al, 2013;Severance et al, 2013).…”

Specificity in the Study of Mixed Emotions: A Theoretical Framework

“…For example, Rees et al (2013) found experimental evidence that relative to participants only feeling happy or sad, participants induced to feel “happy-sad” were more receptive to alternative perspectives, which led to more accurate judgments on estimation tasks. Similarly, mixed emotions have been found to enable greater receptivity to contradictions (Santos et al, 2021), more accurate judgments in naturalistic contexts (Hostler & Berrios, 2021), more creative and effective solutions in negotiations (Kung & Chao, 2019), and more complex inter-group evaluations that rely less on stereotypical perceptions (Prati & Giner-Sorolla, 2018). Indeed, mixed emotions have also been linked to positive psychosocial outcomes such as eudaemonic well-being (Berrios et al, 2018b), enhanced temptation resistance in goal pursuit (Berrios et al, 2018a), as well as more adaptive coping in the COVID-19 pandemic (Oh & Tong, 2021).…”