Introduction: The research article entitled “Social Connection Enables Dehumanization” by Adam Waytz and Nicholas Epley concentrates on the concept of dehumanization and the possible causes of this attribution of sub-human like qualities to human individuals. The article concentrates not on an aggressor versus victim dehumanization as to which the authors reference the picture of two Nazi doctors measuring the vital signs of a Jewish prisoner up to his neck in ice water (Waytz & Epley 2011), but rather concentrate on what causes dehumanization between the aggressor and other social equivalents. The article then hypothesizes that when a social connection is activated, the individual is more likely to dehumanize ones who are socially distant from the individual. This was thought to be true, for individuals who are satisfied with their social groups or sociableness in general are less likely to connect with outside individuals, therefore leading to a dehumanization of those who are outside of their social group.
Integration: Immediately after reading the introduction to the article, the first word to come to mind was “out-group”. This term is referenced several times in our textbook, and in class. During chapter five (stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination), the term is consistently used. The out-group has a tendency to be subjected to stereotypes, discrimination, and prejudice by the in-group. A stereotype is defined as a belief based on attributing traits to a group of people, in a sense making a generalization about the individuals that consist of a group. Dehumanization could be a consequence of stereotyping. One does not see an individual when one is stereotyping a group of people. Therefore, it is easier to discriminate ag...
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... understand the motives behind dehumanization and possible cause of dehumanization, and clearly the benefits of this research outweighed, if any, harm done to the participants. There was no real deception involved in this experiment. The participants were given informed consent. The instructions were clear, though they did not know what the experimenters were looking for; nonetheless I did not observe any true deception involved in this experiment. The participants were all debriefed at the end of the experiments, and seeing this, the experiments were clearly all ethical.
Works Cited
Kassin, Saul, Steven Fein, and Hazel Rose Markus. Social Psychology. 9th ed. . Belmont,
California: Wadsworth, 2011. Print.
Waytz, Adam, and Nicholas Epley. "Social Connection Enables Dehumanization." Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology. 48. (2012): 70-76. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.
A stereotype is an exaggerated generalization used to describe a group of people. Discrimination is the unequal treatment of different categories of people. An example of a stereotype would be the generalization that a majority of African American youth are gangbangers or criminals. An example of discrimination would be the mocking of an Asian student’s accent each time they spoke in class. Stereotyping and discrimination still take place today whether in minority communities or in the communities of those who hold the majority, though these incidents are not as prevalent in non minority
Throughout the history of mankind there have been numerous cases in which people were victims of oppression or hate. Among these cases the sole reasoning behind this oppression or hate being based on the perception of others. History has shown that society is responsible for labeling groups of people, generally these labels are misleading.
A stereotype can have multiple meanings, but one of the most prevailing definitions is that it assumes that groups are representable through a consolidated
In Blaine Harden’s Escape from Camp 14, Shin Dong-Hyuk was born and raised inside of a concentration camp where he was stripped of his human qualities, brainwashed to follow orders, and deprived of his human rights. The goal of the guards within the camp is to dehumanize the prisoners by breaking them down physically and psychologically so that they feel less than human and hence, not worthy of humane treatment. It is proven throughout the novel that the process of dehumanizing an individual impacts the social contingency of a given society.
The Asch and Milgram’s experiment were not unethical in their methods of not informing the participant of the details surrounding the experiment and the unwarranted stress; their experiment portrayed the circumstances of real life situation surrounding the issues of obedience to authority and social influence. In life, we are not given the courtesy of knowledge when we are being manipulated or influenced to act or think a certain way, let us be honest here because if we did know people were watching and judging us most of us would do exactly as society sees moral, while that may sound good in ensuring that we always do the right thing that would not be true to the ways of our reality. Therefore, by not telling the participants the detail of the experiment and inflicting unwarranted stress Asch and Milgram’s were
Dehumanization is characterized by enemy’s viewing each other as parasites apps anything but human, as a result of this eachother believe that their enemy should not receive any consideration. One can also see another as inferior, evil, or criminal. Dehumanization can also be an extension or easier way to develop an enemy. Dehumanization is most commonly found in groups that do not see eye to eye. Each group will try to enforce their way of life as opposed to the other group. There are many different forms of dehumanization. For an example: racism, one person of one race and another person of another race think that each other are better than the other. In an attempt
“Two dangers arise when in-group members have little exposure to out-groups members or knowledge of out-group history” (Ramirez-Berg pg. 18). One is that history can be replaced by other group’s experience. Two is the stereotypical image can be taken as normal or even natural. The five functions of stereotyping that are developed and passed on to others. The first two are focused on a personal level. One is cognitive function of the environment. Two is motivational function protecting values. “The remaining three are at group level, where stereotypes contribute to the creation and maintenance of group beliefs which are then used…” (Ramirez-Berg pg. 28). Three is explaining in a large-scale social event. Four is to justify action. Five is to differentiate in and out
What is dehumanization? It is making themself seem less than human and hence not worthy of humane treatment. Dehumanization, when the author of magazines published a smoking hot blue-eyed woman in a magazine and all eyes on her ass soon as you open it to the page, but the reader is thick with dark skin and brown eyes and feels she could never reach up to this model standards. She starts beating herself, calling herself ugly and finding the puzzles to the pieces. “Well this is why no one likes me or will accept me, because I am not five foot nine with blue eyes and a pair of C cup
Introduction: Philip Zimbardo once said, “Treating other people as insignificant, as anonymous, as dehumanized, bothered me very much. So one of the things I studied later on was the psychology of deindividuation.” He soon proposed the idea of deindividuation to be a mental state in which a person is “less concerned with the future, with normal societal constraints on behavior, and with the consequence of their actions.” (Gilovich 2013) This state usually happens when one is absorbed in a large group.
The first characteristic of stereotyping is over-generalisation. A number of studies conducted found that different combinations of traits were associated with groups of different ethnic and national origin (Katz and Braly, 1933). However, stereotyping does not imply that all members of a group are judged in these ways, just that a typical member of a group can be categorised in such judgements, that they possess the characteristics of the group. Still, when we talk of a group, we do so by imagining a member of that group.
Prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping are important topics at the cause of debating within social psychology. A stereotype is a generalization about a group of people, in which certain traits cling to all members, regardless of actual individual variation (Akert, Aronson, & Wilson, 2010). As humans, people assign objects and individuals into categories to organize the environment. Individuals do this for not only organization, but also survival. Is stereotyping inevitable? That is the question; according to Devine (2007), it is, but Lepore and Brown (2007) have to disagree. Devine believes that “stereotyping is automatic, which makes it inevitable.” On the other hand, Lepore and Brown are not convinced that stereotyping is automatic, and have claimed, after observation, that it depends on the individual.
In many circles of the world, various groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through religion, language, culture, and sometimes gender. People also develop stereotypes about a particular group of people in order to identify them. However, most of the time, these stereotypes hold true for only some members of a group. Sometimes, these stereotypes are just plain misconceptions that do not even apply to the group it claims to. Stereotypes are placed on people because it is a way to easily identify what type of person or ethnicity an individual is. At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into misconceptions. Usually, stereotypes are utilized to humiliate and degrade the person or group; they also do not provide any beneficial outcomes. Stereotypes focus on how a particular group acts because of the radical ideas and actions of the few, how a particular group looks, or how that group is physically lacking in some way. These stereotypes often lead to conflicts because the group does not appreciate the way it is being perceived. Seldom are the stereotypes placed on a group of people truthful and accurate. Some hardly even apply to the particular group people it claims to. It is true that how people are perceived has a big impact on how other individuals interact with them; however, people are not perceiving these groups correctly.
Human brains, for the sake of processing information efficiently, use a shortcut known as social categorization. Humans categorize people into different groups based on common features. The three primary social categories for humans are: sex, race, and age (Yoder, 2013). Although categorizing is helpful during life experiences, there’s a negative backlash to compartmentalizing human-beings. The backlash lies in the small leap between categorizing and stereotyping. Stereotyping is used much in the way of categorizing, in that, we simplify complex information, organize, and store the data we collect. The difference between categorizing and stereotyping is when human’s stereotype they ascribe certain attributes to particular individuals within a group based on perceived affiliation with said group (APA, 1991). Once the stereotype has been formed, an increased level of expectation arises, which influences human behavior, that then reinforces the stereotype creating a circle of negative attitudes. These negative attitudes give way to sex discrimination; ...
As Hodson and Victoria (p.344) note, human beings are not born prejudiced. They develop prejudice through socialization process. The role of family, media, and education is crucial in the prejudice in individuals. Stereotyping involves the construction of unfounded ideas and thoughts concerning an individual. Stereotyping involves the construction of unfounded ideas and thought concerning an individual in the same social context (Farley, p.21). The development of stereotypes revolves around the association of individuals with particular labels of identity. The truth is such ideas and propositions cannot be proven in most situations (Brown, p.68). Hence, the individuals who uphold stereotypes in society become prejudiced toward the victims. The difficulty associated with changing stereotypes is connected to the length of time required for internalization. Individuals in particular classes of society are exposed to stereotypes in their social environment for a considerable amount of time. In consideration of the Emmanuel Church shooting, the perpetrator expressed stereotypical idealization of the African American community. He expressed biased attitude through the sole target of African
In conclusion, society shapes our perspective on people which classifies them into various social groups. Each defined by different characteristics that can be physical, ideological or ethnical. This leads to a discrimination of them for their difference traits. For this reason in the novel social groups are represented in particular ways so the audience can reflect over stereotypical issues.