Why people dehumanize their opponents, scientists have found

Some of the greatest thefts in human history—genocide, slavery, ethnic cleansing—have their roots in our ability to dehumanize people from other social, political, or cultural groups.

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Previously, scientists have already found a connection between dehumanization and the belief that others think or feel less than us. New research from American scientists suggests that our tendency to dehumanize may also be influenced by how we think others see important aspects of the world. This was reported by the press service of the Haas School of Business at the University of California (USA).

The greater the difference between our ideas about the worldview of another group and a “typical” person, the more we tend to dehumanize them, the researchers note.

The act of dehumanization is at least partly driven by what we call “perceived otherness”: the belief that another group experiences something that deeply concerns us differently than most other people, the scientists note.

In this study, researchers used the sociological concept of “schemas” to examine this effect. Broadly speaking, schemas are the ways in which people categorize the world, as well as the associations they have between these categories. Eg:

• a conservative in the United States may associate freedom with economic independence and the absence of government interference;
• at the same time, a liberal may associate freedom with civil liberties and freedom of expression.

Scientists conducted two studies. In the first of them, they asked people who identify themselves as Republicans or Democrats in the United States to talk about their schemes related to the concept of “America.” Participants chose four words out of eight that they thought best defined America:

• two of these sets contained positive words (e.g., strong, innovative);
• two are neutral (for example, constitution, western);
• two – negative (for example, dangerous, uneven).

After participants formulated their own associations, they were asked to describe the associations they thought a typical member of their political party, a typical member of the opposition party, and a typical person would have.

The researchers then asked participants to report the extent to which they overtly dehumanized members of the opposing party. It turned out that partisans of one party were more likely to outright dehumanize members of the opposing party when they believed that group’s worldview about America was very different from what they ascribed to the average person.

Of course, the causal arrow can also go in the opposite direction: the more a person dehumanizes another group, the more he may perceive that group as having views that differ from those of the typical person, the scientists note.

To gain a clearer understanding of the causal relationship, the researchers conducted a second experimental study in which Republicans and Democrats were randomly shown one of two sets of fabricated information:

• one set showed that people from the opposite political party see America the same way as the typical person;
• another showed that members of the opposing political party have very different schemas from the “typical” person.

The researchers found that dehumanization was significantly stronger in the latter condition, confirming the results of the first experiment. Participants reported that information about people had been fabricated at the end of the study.

When people perceive the other party as less human, we should worry about negative consequences such as political violence, the researchers conclude. “If we start to understand where this perception comes from, it will give us another lever to combat it.”

Source: Racurs

David

I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.