Abstract:

Adults across cultures believe humans matter more than nonhumans. Although children prioritize humans less, similar patterns also appear in them. When we perceive humanity in others, we demonstrate unmatched potential for Pro sociality. However, people do not always consider all humans as fully human. We tend to deny fully human mind to outgroup members, especially those who are perceived as threatening. When adults deny others’ humanness, they underestimate the target people’s feelings and thoughts. Discrimination, persecution and violence against the target groups thus become acceptable. Developmental research demonstrates that dehumanization already appears in children and observes its association with the intention to harm the dehumanized targets. This talk will review an ongoing project that investigates what leads children to dehumanize, with the aim to disentangle the psychological and socio-cultural determinants of outgroup negativity and provide implications for preventing entrenchment of biases.