Dehumanization

Dr. Susan Fiske came to speak at Duke about the treats of stereotyping and its consequences for the evaluation of those around us. She presented her stereotype content model, which describes how humans tend to categorize other groups of people based on race, gender, age, and status in society. In addition, social relationships, cooperation, competition, and power can encourage or discourage forms of discrimination. By asking people to make judgments about social groups using two dimensions, warmth and competence, she was able to point out how society values them. For example, in the video clip below, Dr. Fiske and Ph D candidate Mike North discuss the pity that people feel for older people, who are categorized as having high warmth but low competence. 

I was most intrigued by her thoughts on dehumanization of certain groups. Those who are believed to have low warmth and low competence are evaluated with disgust, like those who are homeless. She noted that fMRI studies have indicated that the MPFC does not activate when we evaluate the homeless. She suggested that almost as if by default, we do not humanize them and think about their points of view. In other words, it seems as though we dehumanize people with our stereotypes of disgust. Going beyond our categories and prejudices to learn about the individual person requires motivation. If we are asked to think about the mental states of members of those groups, then we are more likely to individuate them and humanize them. I found it shocking that universally, our default tendency to form quick judgments about groups of people can involve dehumanizing others. However, it gives me hope that this can be overcome!