Are they animals or machines? Measuring dehumanization

Span J Psychol. 2012 Nov;15(3):1110-22. doi: 10.5209/rev_sjop.2012.v15.n3.39401.

Abstract

The present research deals with two forms of dehumanization: 1) denying uniquely human attributes to others (seeing them as animals); 2) denying human nature to others (seeing them as machines or automata). Studies 1 and 2 explored these two forms of dehumanization, analyzing whether people associated their ingroup more with human-related words (vs. animal- vs. machine-related words) than two different outgroups. A paper and pencil procedure was used to find out which words were associated with the surnames of the ingroup (Spaniards) or the outgroup (Germans, Gypsies). Results showed that participants were more ready to link ingroup than outgroup surnames to human words. They also linked more Gypsy surnames to animal-related words and German surnames with machine-related words. Studies 3 and 4 used the Implicit Association Test to analyze the same ideas and replicated the results of Studies 1 and 2.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Association*
  • Dehumanization*
  • Ethnicity / psychology
  • Female
  • Group Processes
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Names
  • Psycholinguistics / methods
  • Psychological Tests
  • Social Identification*
  • Word Association Tests
  • Young Adult