Children Aged 5-12 Years Blatantly Dehumanize an Outgroup as Adults Do

• In Event: Who Deserves Moral Concern? The Perception of Humanity and Its Role in Moral Reasoning

Abstract

Dehumanization is observed in adults across cultures (Kteily & Bruneau, 2017) and is thought to motivate the worst forms of human cruelty (Smith, 2020). Understanding the mechanism that predisposes individuals to dehumanization and the psychology that allows for its development will be critical to implementing strategies to prevent future intergroup aggression. Recent evolutionary analysis (Hare & Woods, 2020) suggests the mind denial hypothesis (MDH) that dehumanization is a specialized cognitive process with mentalization abilities being dampened by the perception of outgroup threats. The social artifact hypothesis (SAH) suggests instead that dehumanization is a by-product of metaphorical reasoning and requires socialization to express itself (Over, 2020). We test the two hypotheses by investigating if individuals spontaneously dehumanize an outgroup and concurrently withdraw moral concern.
Two studies were conducted. In adults (N = 482), we evoked participants’ ethnic ingroup identification and mentioned the identity of a social group which is widely perceived as threatening. Children aged 5-12 years (N =150; mean age = 7.72, SD = 1.64) were tested in groups and were introduced to a knowledge competition against a hypothetical peer group. In both age groups, dehumanization was tested using various representations of humanness (Figure 1), including a novel simplified scale (Human Silhouette) and metaphors which require social learning (Ascent of Man). To measure moral disengagement, in adults, we assessed perception of outgroup inferiority using a social dominance orientation (SDO) scale and donation allocation to an ingroup versus outgroup cause. In children, we tested SDO, intentions to punish a misbehaving outgroup member and share stickers with the outgroup, and social rejection of an outgroup member.
Results supported MDH. Both adults and children showed dehumanization in response to all the representations of humanness (Figure 2), ruling out the need for intensive exposure to cultural norms or schooling. Most children (92.67%) intuitively understood all representations with little, if any, explicit training. Children dehumanized the outgroup more with the simplified Human Silhouette than the Ascent of Man scale, suggesting that dehumanization may be partially distinguishable from animalistic slurring which requires some enculturation. Compared to adults’ responses to the threatening social outgroup, children manifested even stronger dehumanization to the hypothetical peer group, implying that dehumanization may be moderated by adult levels of inhibition in later life.
As predicted by MDH, dehumanization is associated with decreased moral concern in both age groups. The link between dehumanization and SDO was found in both adults and children. Although we did not assess the previously demonstrated link between dehumanization and acceptance of punishment in adults (Bandura, 1975; Jardina & Piston, 2016), we observed in children that dehumanization is associated with the severity of punishment they recommended for the misbehaving outgroup member. In adults, dehumanization is associated with smaller allocation of support toward the outgroup. However, in children, only a trend was observed that dehumanization might be associated with less sharing intentions. As well, we did not see a link between dehumanization and social rejection. One possible account is that dehumanization and disliking may already be distinguishable early in development.

Authors

• Wen Zhou, Duke Univeristy
  Presenting Author

• Brian Hare, Duke University
  Non-Presenting Author