Poster #93 - “Something’s Missing in His Brain”: Dehumanizing Language Promotes Dehumanization of Autistic Children

• In Event: Poster Session 13

Abstract

Dehumanization, the tendency to view a group or individual as less than fully human, influences the degree to which people are awarded moral concern and, in turn, mistreated. Even children as young as five years old blatantly dehumanize outgroups, especially when they have a strong social dominance orientation (SDO) (McLoughlin & Over, 2017; Zhou & Hare, 2020). However, few experimental studies have investigated the influence of language on children’s dehumanization, and none have considered the degree to which children dehumanize autistic peers.

We introduced 8- to 10-year-old children (N = 101, M age = 9.5 years) to two novel groups that shared behavioral features with autism (e.g., atypical communication and self-stimulatory behaviors). Children heard one group described in dehumanizing ways and the other in humanizing ways (e.g., as having something missing in their brain or as unable to understand others’ thoughts and emotions vs. as neurologically different, but still capable of understanding others’ thoughts and emotions). After both vignettes, children completed blatant dehumanization scales (Zhou & Hare, 2020), where they placed the groups on a 4-point scale ranging from “least” to “most human,” and subtle, trait-based dehumanization scales (Cage et al., 2018), where they rated the groups on uniquely human traits (e.g., how respectful they are) and traits associated with human nature (e.g., how friendly they are). We also measured children’s self-humanization by asking them to rate “kids like themselves” on the blatant and trait-based dehumanization scales. Finally, children completed a child-appropriate SDO scale (Ruffman et al., 2020).

We hypothesized that children would engage in more blatant and subtle dehumanization of the group that was described with dehumanizing language than the group that was described with humanizing language. We also hypothesized that children higher in SDO would engage in greater levels of dehumanization, especially of the group that was described with dehumanizing language.

As Figure 1 shows and consistent with our hypotheses, children dehumanized both novel groups relative to themselves, but they engaged in more dehumanization of the group described with dehumanizing rather than humanizing language. However, as shown in Figure 2, SDO did not contribute to either blatant or trait-based dehumanization. In summary, regardless of SDO, non-autistic children dehumanized novel groups with autistic-like characteristics, especially when the group was described with dehumanizing language.

In a follow-up study, we are investigating the degree to which children’s dehumanization of autistic peers contributes to their attitudes towards punishment and educational policies relevant to autistic people. This line of work not only contributes to theoretical knowledge about the influences of dehumanizing language on children’s intergroup attitudes, but also contributes empirical evidence to motivate more humanizing descriptions of autistic people in research and practice.

Authors

• Zoe Sargent Robertson, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Presenting Author

• Vikram K Jaswal, University of Virginia - Charlottesville