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Contributed by Paul Slovic, February 14, 2020 (sent for review December 18, 2019; reviewed by Douglas MacLean and Adam Waytz)
Significance
The existing literature on dehumanization often considers how people make dehumanization judgments and the groups that are dehumanized by others. For example, conservatives are more likely to dehumanize than liberals and immigrants tend to be treated as less than human versus Americans. It is often unclear, however, if dehumanization relates to social and psychological characteristics beyond demographic information. We observed that people who dehumanize immigrants feel less connected to them, describe immigrants in impersonal terms and from a position of power, and endorse social harms that should have little impact on their immigration views. We suggest a social, psychological, and demographic profile of dehumanization that might identify warning signs and prevent others from being treated as less than human.
Abstract
This study extends the current body of work on dehumanization by evaluating the social, psychological, and demographic correlates of blatant disregard for immigrants. Participants (n = 468) were randomly assigned to read a scenario where 1) an immigrant or 2) an immigrant and their child were caught illegally crossing the southern border of the United States, and then rated how long they should spend in jail if convicted. Participants reported that they would sentence the immigrant to more jail time than the immigrant and child. Those who sent immigrants to jail for more time also viewed them as socially distant and less human, described immigration in impersonal terms, and endorsed other social harms unrelated to immigration (e.g., the death penalty for convicted murderers). Crucially, endorsed social harms accounted for explained variance beyond simply holding conservative views. We position these data within the current literature on dehumanization theory and immigration issues.
Footnotes
- ↵1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: pslovic{at}uoregon.edu.
Author contributions: D.M.M. and P.S. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
Reviewers: D.M., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and A.W., Northwestern University.
The authors declare no competing interest.
Data deposition: The data reported in this paper have been deposited in the Open Science Framework, https://osf.io/7zfx2/.
This article contains supporting information online at https://www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1921790117/-/DCSupplemental.
Published under the PNAS license.
Social, psychological, and demographic characteristics of dehumanization toward immigrants
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