Defensive dehumanization

Defensive dehumanization is defined as a process through which people down-regulate their emotional involvement with suffering others suggesting that dehumanization might be functional in certain contexts. While attributions of humanness are expected to increase empathic reactions (see Empathy and humanness), increasing the empathic demand in a helping situation will not always increase the attribution of humanness to a suffering target. In the current line of research, we aim to study the conditions under which people put up such emotional barriers through the dehumanization of suffering others. While most of the initial work has studied this process in the field among health professionals, our more current research efforts focus on measuring these processes in the laboratory.

To know more about this line of research, contact jeroen.vaes@unitn.it

Some relevant publications:

Vaes, J., & Muratore, M. (2013). Defensive dehumanization in the medical practice: A cross-sectional study from a health care worker’s perspective. British Journal of Social Psychology, 52, 180-190.

Pavon, G., & Vaes, J. (2017). Bio-genetic vs. psycho-environmental conceptions of schizophrenia and their role in perceiving patients in human terms. Psychosis, 9, 235-244.