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

May 2000
Personality and Social Psychology Review 4(2):186-197

May 2000
4(2):186-197

DOI:10.1207/S15327957PSPR0402_06

Authors:

Jacques-Philippe Leyens

Université Catholique de Louvain - UCLouvain

Maria paola Paladino

Università degli Studi di Trento

Ramón Rodríguez Torres

Universidad de La Laguna

Jeroen Vaes

Università degli Studi di Trento

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If people favor their ingroup, are especially concerned with their own group, and attribute different essences to different groups, itfollows that their essence must be superior to the essence of other groups. Intelligence, language, and certain emotions are all considered to be distinctive elements ofhuman nature or essence. The role ofintelligence 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. Secondary 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.

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Your humanity depends on mine: the role of organizational dehumanization in the context of university studies

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Infrahumanization means considering the other or the outgroup as less human than oneself or the ingroup. However, little attention has been given to the variables that determine the selection of which outgroups may be subjected to infrahumanization and the variables that might be moderating this process. This research aims to analyze the role that the relationship with the outgroup plays in the attribution of secondary emotions and the moderator role of organizational dehumanization. Participants (N = 338 students) completed a structured questionnaire that took 15 min. The results show that there is an attribution of humanity to the outgroup when the relationship between ingroup and outgroup is closer. Furthermore, organizational dehumanization had a moderator role between the relationship with the outgroup and the infrahumanization, which shows that when the ingroup perceives that it is being dehumanized by its organization, it attributes less humanity to the outgroup. Our research extends the theoretical understanding of infrahumanization and suggests that the relationship between the outgroup and the organizational dehumanization impacts the attribution of humanity.

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White people confuse Black faces more than their own-race faces. This is an example of the other-race effect, commonly measured by the other-race face recognition task. Like this task, the “Who said what?” paradigm uses within-race confusions in memory, but to measure social categorization strength. The former finds a strongly asymmetrical pattern of interrace perception, the other-race effect, yet the latter usually finds symmetrical patterns (equally strong categorization of own-race and other-race faces). In a “Who said what?” meta-analysis, racial categorization and individuation across races were only weakly asymmetrical (Study 1, n = 2,669). We aimed to resolve this empirical misalignment. As tested in other-race face recognition tasks, the weak asymmetry was not due to the limited number of portrait stimuli (Study 2, N = 99) nor to the longer duration of stimulus presentation in the “Who said what?” task (Study 4, n = 358). Pairing portraits with statements reduced the other-race effect (Study 3, n = 126). Showing each portrait repeatedly also reduced the other-race effect (Study 4, n = 358; Study 5, n = 470) but did not decrease infrahumanization of Black portraits (Study 6, n = 487). Consequently, presenting portraits only once in the “Who said what?” paradigm (Study 7, N = 112) resulted in strong interrace categorization and individuation asymmetries. This finding bridges a central conceptual gap between the other-race effect and social categorization strength.

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Relations between groups are particularly sensitive in post-conflict societies where tensions persist, and reconciliation remains unlikely. The present research investigated whether believing or learning that an outgroup humanizes the ingroup (i.e., meta-humanization) enhances conciliatory attitudes and intergroup negotiations. In three studies conducted in the post-conflict context of Kosovo (N = 1,407), we investigated whether metahumanization, in comparison to meta-dehumanization (i.e., the belief that outgroups dehumanize the ingroup) or a control condition wherein no information related to (de)humanization is provided, impacts various intergroup outcomes through the attribution of secondary emotions (i.e., the tendency to deny outgroups the capability to experience human emotions) and blatant dehumanization (i.e., the tendency to overtly or explicitly regard outgroup members as being less than fully human). Using correlational data, Study 1 revealed that blatant dehumanization, but not the attribution of secondary emotions, mediated the effect of meta-humanization on conciliatory attitudes, including support for the outgroup, openness to future contact, and feelings of peace with outgroup members. However, this pattern did not extend to intergroup negotiation, as none of the indirect effects through both the attribution of secondary emotions and blatant dehumanization were significant. Using experimental data, Study 2 demonstrated that participants in the meta-humanization condition exhibited lower levels of blatant dehumanization towards the outgroup, increased support for the outgroup, greater openness to intergroup contact, and reported feeling more at peace with outgroup members compared to those in both the meta-dehumanization and control conditions. However, participants in the meta-dehumanization and control conditions showed greater support for intergroup negotiation than those in the meta-humanization condition. Moreover, Study 2 indicated that blatant dehumanization, rather than the attribution of secondary emotions, mediated the effect of meta-humanization on all these outcomes—except for intergroup negotiations. Finally, Study 3 replicated the findings observed in Study 2 regarding the effect of meta-humanization (vs. metadehumanization and control) on conciliatory attitudes and intergroup negotiation while controlling for metaprejudice. Furthermore, Study 3 revealed that both blatant dehumanization and the attribution of secondary emotions mediated the effects of meta-humanization on all these outcomes. In sum, this set of studies shows that meta-humanization promotes reconciliation, especially via reduced blatant dehumanization, but these beneficial effects do not extend to support for intergroup negotiation.

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Beyond Explicit Acknowledgment: Brain Response Evidence of Human Skepticism towards Robotic Emotions

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Apr 2024

Humans are social creatures who need to respect certain norms and practice social responsibility for the well-being of everyone, but many people transgress these norms. Behaving uncivilly may lead to the transgressor being seen as someone unable to live in society and not as human as others. However, not all transgressors are perceived and evaluated equally. The purpose of this research was to verify the relationship between incivility and lack of humanness, and identify how racial belonging influences the perception of uncivil transgressors. In three studies (N = 450), we wanted to confirm the association between (in)civility with blatant and covert dehumanization and explore how the racial belonging of uncivil agents may affect the way they are perceived. Results show that the agents who behave uncivilly are dehumanized blatantly and covertly (Study 1). Additionally, White uncivil agents are perceived and evaluated more harshly than Black uncivil agents by people of their same racial group (Study 2a). Additionally, Black uncivil agents were dehumanized less than White uncivil agents by people of their same racial group (Study 2b). Our findings confirm the relationship between incivility and lack of humanness and show a racial bias is present in the application of social norms.

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Bu çalışma, uzun bir tarihi arka planı ve pratikler bütünü olan İsrail’in Filistinliler üzerindeki zulmünü, Filistinli mültecilerin ‘kamp tipi yaşam’ etrafında dehümanize edilmesini odağına alarak göstermeye çalışacaktır. Kabaca, bir kişi ya da grubun onu insan yapan vasıf ve haklarından azade kılınma çaba ve eylemleri olarak tanımlayabileceğimiz dehümanizasyon, ‘kamp tipi yaşama’ sıkışmış hayatları, en temel insani ihtiyaçlarının bile temini noktasında ciddi eksikliklerin yaşanmasıyla Filistinli mülteciler vakasında bize göre oldukça görünür olmaktadır. Bu noktada bizim iddiamız Filistinli mültecilerin çifte bir dehümanizsayon süreciyle yüzleştiğidir. Bunların ilki ve en görünür olanı, İsrail’in şiddet eylemleri ve Filistin topraklarındaki yayılmacı politikalarının neredeyse meşrulaştırıcı zemini oluşturmaya başlayan onların gözünde Filistinlilerin ‘insan’ vasfı taşımayan, hakları olmayan kişiler olarak görülmesidir. İkincisi ise biraz daha gizil bir dehümanizasyon boyutu olarak, yine İsrail’in şiddet eylemleriyle doğrudan bağlantılı olarak, Filistinli mülteciler için artık kamp yaşamının gerçek hayatın ta kendisi olması, geçici olarak oluşturulan acil yardım mantığının kalıcılaşmasıdır.

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Jean-Pierre Deconchy

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SOC COGNITION

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