Bruneau Emile, Kteily Nour
Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America.
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2017 Jul 26;12(7):e0181422. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181422. eCollection 2017.
Historically, dehumanization has enabled members of advantaged groups to 'morally disengage' from disadvantaged group suffering, thereby facilitating acts of intergroup aggression such as colonization, slavery and genocide. But is blatant dehumanization exclusive to those at the top 'looking down', or might disadvantaged groups similarly dehumanize those who dominate them? We examined this question in the context of intergroup warfare in which the disadvantaged group shoulders a disproportionate share of casualties and may be especially likely to question the humanity of the advantaged group. Specifically, we assessed blatant dehumanization in the context of stark asymmetric conflict between Israelis (Study 1; N = 521) and Palestinians (Study 2; N = 354) during the 2014 Gaza war. We observed that (a) community samples of Israelis and Palestinians expressed extreme (and comparable) levels of blatant dehumanization, (b) blatant dehumanization was uniquely associated with outcomes related to outgroup hostility for both groups, even after accounting for political ideologies known to strongly predict outgroup aggression, and (c) the strength of association between blatant dehumanization and outcomes was similar across both groups. This study illuminates the striking potency and symmetry of blatant dehumanization among those on both sides of an active asymmetric conflict.
从历史上看，非人化使优势群体的成员能够在道德上与弱势群体的苦难“脱钩”，从而助长了群体间的侵略行为，如殖民、奴役和种族灭绝。但公然的非人化是否只存在于处于高位者“俯视”他人的情况中，弱势群体是否也可能同样地将统治他们的群体视为非人呢？我们在群体间战争的背景下研究了这个问题，在这种战争中，弱势群体承受了不成比例的伤亡，可能尤其容易质疑优势群体的人性。具体而言，我们评估了2014年加沙战争期间以色列人（研究1；N = 521）和巴勒斯坦人（研究2；N = 354）之间明显不对称冲突背景下的公然非人化情况。我们观察到：（a）以色列人和巴勒斯坦人的社区样本都表现出极端（且相当）程度的公然非人化；（b）即使在考虑了已知能强烈预测群体间攻击行为的政治意识形态之后，公然非人化对于两个群体而言都与群体外敌意相关的结果有着独特的关联；（c）两个群体中，公然非人化与结果之间的关联强度相似。这项研究揭示了在一场活跃的不对称冲突中，双方公然非人化的显著效力和对称性。
