The Role of Reduced Humanity in Producing Linguistic Discrimination

What is it about?

This article reports two empirical studies addressing the role of perceived (reduced) humanity and group membership of others in producing linguistic discrimination. Study 1 assessed the effects of these factors on a subtle measure of linguistic discrimination, namely linguistic abstraction. Study 2 considered the explicit level of verbal abuse. Results highlighted that target’s reduced humanity led to enhanced linguistic discrimination towards the target, while group membership moderated this effect in specific conditions. Overall, the evidence of this set of studies sheds light on the role of humanity and its interplay with social categorisation on discrimination outcomes.

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Why is it important?

The two studies reported in the paper represent one of the few empirical demonstrations of the role of dehumanized perception of others as an antecedent of social discrimination in interaction with group membership. The gathered evidence highlights the conditions under which severe derogation of other is likely.