The Emotional Side of Prejudice: The Attribution of Secondary Emotions to Ingroups and Outgroups

Abstract

If people favor their ingroup, are especially concerned with their own group, and attribute different essences to different groups, it follows that their essence must be superior to the essence of other groups. Intelligence, language, and certain emotions are all considered to be distinctive elements of human nature or essence. The role of inteligence and language in discrimination, prejudice, and racism has already been largely investigated, and this article focuses on attributed emotions. Specifically, we investigate the idea that secondary emotions are typically human characteristics, and as such, they should be especially associated with and attributed to the ingroup. Seondary emotions may even be denied to outgroups. These differential associations and attributions of specifically human emotions to ingroups versus outgroups should affect intergroup relations. Results from several initial experiments are summarized that support our reasoning. This emotional approach to prejudice and racism is contrasted with more classic, cognitive perspectives.

Endorsing help for others that you oppose for yourself: Mind perception alters the perceived effectiveness of paternalism.

“…Prior research identifies certain groups, such as homeless people, drug addicts, and children, who are presumed to have relatively weak mental capacity (Fiske, Cuddy, & Glick, 2007;Harris & Fiske, 2006;Leyens et al, 2000). This dehumanizing attribution can be consequential: For instance, it can lead to moral disregard and lower likelihood of helping the person (Bandura, Underwood, & Fromson, 1975;Cuddy et al, 2007;Gray, Waytz, & Young, 2012;Levine et al, 2005).…”

Editorial Political Cartoons in Australia: Social Representations & and the Visual Depiction of Essentialism

“…Leyens et al 2000), or intra-group differentiation of Christian Australians, can be regarded as a de-essentializing discursive strategy (Verkuyten 2003;Wagner et al 2009, p. 373f): People are depicted as Christians, but their religion is neither inherent, nor is it defining other important personality traits and characteristics. However, Christians are recognizable as Christians.…”

Estudo da validação das escalas de crenças sobre a natureza da homossexualidade e de preconceito contra homossexuais

“…O essencialismo é um processo resultante da crença de que cada categoria de objectos possui um conjunto fixo de características que definem a natureza mais profunda dos elementos das categorias (Medin & Ortony, 1989) e servem para justificar a desigualdade social (Yzerbyt, Rocher, & Schadron, 1997). A investigação neste domínio tem analisado a estrutura das crenças essencialistas (e.g., Bastian & Haslam, 2006;Haslam, Bastian, & Bissett, 2004;Hegarty & Pratto, 2001) e o seu papel nas atitudes intergrupais (e.g., Haslam & Levy, 2006;Leyens et al, 2000). Em síntese, estes estudos mostram que as teorias implícitas que as pessoas têm sobre a natureza dos grupos sociais desempenham um papel importante no preconceito.…”