Language & Cognition seminar - Dr Harriet Over

Challenging the dehumanisation hypothesis 

Discrimination is a pressing social problem. Psychological research can only help ameliorate discrimination if it accurately characterises the mechanisms underlying our social biases. Prominent psychological theories suggest that outgroups are often subtly dehumanised by being denied uniquely human qualities and emotions. I will present a series of theoretical and empirical challenges to these claims. I will describe experimental data suggesting that, although out-group members may be denied some uniquely human qualities and emotions, they are often attributed others. These results suggest that some leading theories of dehumanisation may not accurately capture how human psychology contributes to discrimination.