Imagined Otherness Fuels Blatant Dehumanization of Outgroups

• DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/j2f6u
• Publication Date: 2020-07-25T17:23:57Z
• Authors: Austin van Loon; Amir Goldberg; Sameer Srivastava
• Keywords: Dehumanization; Dignity; Schematic; Judgement

Dehumanization of others has been attributed to institutional processes that spread dehumanizing norms and narratives, as well individuals' denial mind others. We propose blatant dehumanization also arises when people actively contemplate others' minds. introduce the construct imagined otherness---perceiving a prototypical member social group construes an important facet world in ways diverge from way most humans understand it---and argue such attributions catalyze beyond effects general perceived difference identification. Measuring schematic relative concept America, we examine how this measure relates tendency U.S. Republicans Democrats blatantly dehumanize members other political party. report results two pre-registered studies---one correlational (N = 771) one experimental 398)---that together lend support for our theory. discuss implications these findings research on boundaries, polarization, measurement meaning.