Humanizing outgroups through multiple categorization:the roles of individuation and threat

Abstract

In three studies, we examined the impact of multiple categorization on intergroup dehumanization. Study 1 showed that perceiving members of a rival university along multiple versus simple categorical dimensions enhanced the tendency to attribute human traits to this group. Study 2 showed that multiple versus simple categorization of immigrants increased the attribution of uniquely human emotions to them. This effect was explained by the sequential mediation of increased individuation of the outgroup and reduced outgroup threat. Study 3 replicated this sequential mediation model and introduced a novel way of measuring humanization in which participants generated attributes corresponding to the outgroup in a free response format. Participants generated more uniquely human traits in the multiple versus simple categorization conditions. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and consider their role in informing and improving efforts to ameliorate contemporary forms of intergroup discrimination.

Publication DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167216636624
Divisions: College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School
Additional Information: Creative commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC 3.0) The online supplemental material is available at http://pspb.sage-pub.com/supplemental.
Uncontrolled Keywords: dehumanization,individuation,multiple categorization,perceived threat,Social Psychology
Publication ISSN: 1552-7433
Last Modified: 19 Feb 2024 08:11
Date Deposited: 04 Apr 2016 10:20
Full Text Link:
Related URLs: http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK (Scopus URL)
http://psp.sage ... ontent/42/4/526 (Publisher URL)
PURE Output Type: Article
Published Date: 2016-04-01
Published Online Date: 2016-03-16
Accepted Date: 2016-02-07
Submitted Date: 2015-07-14
Authors: Prati, Francesca
Crisp, Richard J.
Meleady, Rose
Rubini, Monica

Download

Export / Share Citation


Statistics

Additional statistics for this record