Why Economic, Health, Legal, and Immigration Policy Should Consider Dehumanization

Abstract

People spontaneously think about the minds of other people, aiding social interaction. Such cognitions recognize the other person as a full human being, deserving empathy and protection. Social psychology and neuroscience evidence also demonstrate the opposite— dehumanized perception—a failure to spontaneously think about the minds of others. Although initial research focused on extreme out-groups (e.g., the homeless) as targets of dehumanized perception, more recent research documents dehumanized perception toward ordinary people in everyday contexts. Therefore, dehumanized perception is not reserved only for extreme out-groups, or committed by sociopaths; any person can be dehumanized, and some social contexts enable any person to dehumanize others. For instance, people dehumanize others in economic contexts where people are traded as commodities (such as labor markets), when expecting to interact with someone suffering, and when thinking about an out-group previously oppressed by the in-group. Because policy makers shape the social context, they can promote dehumanized perception or not.