Costas Panagopoulos - Dehumanization, Intergroup Bias, and Political Identity

Abstract: While research has shed valuable light on white Americans’ blatant dehumanization of black Americans and other marginalized groups, less explored are the dehumanization attitudes held by nonwhite Americans. This gap leaves unclear how disadvantaged minorities, such as black, Latino, and Asian Americans, respond to the dehumanization they face. Because people generally esteem their ingroup over others, we hypothesize that nonwhite Americans dehumanize whites. On average, they do, except Republican nonwhites do not, suggesting that dehumanization of whites reflects support for the racial status hierarchy. Consistent with this, dehumanization of whites is associated with support for anti-immigrant policies. Furthermore, dehumanization attitudes are dynamic. A survey experiment provides evidence for the tethered humanity hypothesis, in which nonwhites’ dehumanization of whites is tied to the rhetoric of white elites. Messages in which President Trump did not dehumanize anyone decreased nonwhites’ dehumanization of whites. Dehumanizing messages had no effect.