Dehumanization

For the Crucifix album, see Dehumanization (album).

Dehumanization is to make somebody less human by taking away his or her individuality, the creative and interesting aspects of his or her personality, or his or her compassion and sensitivity towards others.^{[citation needed]} Dehumanization may be directed by an organization (such as a state) or may be the composite of individual sentiments and actions, as with some types of de facto racism. State-organized dehumanization has been directed against perceived racial or ethnic groups, nationalities (or "foreigners" in general), religious groups, genders, minorities of various sexual orientations (e.g., homosexuals), disabled people as a class, economic (e.g., the homeless) and social classes, and many other groups.

The concept of dehumanization has received empirical attention in the psychological literature (Deci & Moller, 2010; Haslam et al., 2008). See: Psychwiki

Nations and governments

A U.S. government poster from World War II depicting a Japanese soldier as a rat.

Sociologists and historians often view dehumanization as central to some or all types of wars. Governments sometimes present "enemy" civilians or soldiers as less than human so that voters will be more likely to support a war they may otherwise consider mass murder. Dictatorships use the same process to prevent opposition by citizens. Such efforts often depend on preexisting racist, sectarian or otherwise biased beliefs, which governments play upon through various types of media, presenting "enemies" as barbaric, undeserving of rights, and a threat to the nation. Alternatively, states sometimes present the enemy government or way of life as barbaric and its citizens as childlike and incapable of managing their own affairs. Such arguments have been used as a pretext for colonialism.

The Holocaust during World War II and the Rwandan Genocide have both been cited as atrocities predicated upon government-organized campaigns of dehumanization, while crimes like lynching (especially in the United States) are often thought of as the result of popular bigotry and government apathy. The main cause behind the American mutilation of Japanese war dead has been stated to be dehumanization.

Anthropologists Ashley Montagu and Floyd Matson famously wrote that dehumanization might well be considered "the fifth horseman of the apocalypse" because of the inestimable damage it has dealt to society. When people become things, the logic follows, they become dispensable - and any atrocity can be justified.

Dehumanization can be seen outside of overtly violent conflicts, as in political debates where opponents are presented as collectively stupid or inherently evil. Such "good-versus-evil" claims help end substantive debate (see also thought-terminating cliché).

Other topics

The empirically-supported propaganda model of Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky shows^[1] how corporate media are able to carry out large-scale, successful dehumanization campaigns when that promotes the goals (profit-making) that the corporations are contractually obliged to maximise^[2]. State media, in either democracies or dictatorships, are also capable of carrying out dehumanization campaigns^[3], to the extent with which the population is unable to counteract the dehumanizing memes.^{[citation needed]}

The dissections of human cadavers, was seen as dehumanizing in the Dark Ages (see Medieval anatomy), but now the importance of dissections as a training aid is more widely accepted.

See also

• Ethnic stereotype
• Life unworthy of life
• Nonperson
• Objectification
• Propaganda
• Race
• Racism
• Second-class citizen
• Sectarianism
• Social defeat
• Victimisation
• Perceived psychological contract violation
• Perceived organizational support

Notes

1. ^ Herman, Edward S. and Noam Chomsky. (1988). Manufacturing Consent: the Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon. Page xli
2. ^ Thomas Ferguson. (1987). Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Politics
3. ^ Herman, Edward S. and Noam Chomsky. (1988). Manufacturing Consent: the Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon. Appendix I (Page 366)

References

Moller, A. C., & Deci, E. L. (2010). Interpersonal control, dehumanization, and violence: A self-determination theory perspective. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 13, 41-53.

Haslam, N., Kashima, Y., Loughnan, S., Shi, J., & Suitner, C. (2008). Subhuman, inhuman, and superhuman: Contrasting humans with nonhumans in three cultures. Social Cognition, 26(2), 248-258. doi:10.1521/soco.2008.26.2.248.

Sources

Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh