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To understand dehumanization, we must understand how humans are contrasted with nonhumans. Our work (Haslam, 2006) proposes two forms of dehumanization, in which people are denied uniquely human attributes and likened to animals, or denied human nature attributes and likened to robots. In the light of this model, we examined the mental capacities that are believed to differentiate humans from animals, robots, and supernatural beings in three cultures (Australia, China, Italy). Cross-culturally consistent patterns emerged, with humans differing from nonhumans on two dimensions that closely resembled our two proposed forms of humanness. Compared to humans, animals were seen as lacking higher cognitive powers and refined emotion, but also as having superior perceptual capacities. Robots chiefly lacked emotion- and desire-related capacities. Supernatural beings had superior cognitive and perceptual capacities. Implications for dehumanization are discussed.
Dehumanization is normally understood to involve the denial of someone's humanness. However, psychologists have rarely specified what it is that is being denied. Humanness is a large and amorphous concept, but any theory of dehumanization must address it. One way to do so is to give the concept no precise content, but to propose that humanness is denied whenever a person is explicitly likened to a nonhuman. A problem with this approach is that purely metaphorical and benign examples ("you are my rock," "you cheeky monkey") will count as dehumanizing. Another approach is to propose definitions of humanness, and infer dehumanization whenever the defining features are denied to people.
We have recently attempted to combine these approaches in a new theoretical model of dehumanization (Haslam, 2006). We propose two distinct senses of humanness, arguing that when each sense is denied to people, they are implicitly or explicitly likened to a particular kind of nonhuman. Our model grew out of infra-humanization theory (Leyens et al., 2003; see Demoulin, Saroglou, & Van Pachterbeke, 2008, this issue and Boccato, Capozza, Falvo, & Durante, 2008, this issue), which defines humanness as those attributes that are unique to our species, exemplified by secondary emotions (e.g., nostalgia, pride). Infra-humanization occurs when an outgroup is denied these uniquely human emotions relative to an ingroup, and is thereby implicitly seen as closer to animals. We argued that humanness can also be understood as human nature: those attributes that are...