Verónica Betancor Rodríguez

Contextual Variations of Infrahumanization: The Role of Physical Context and Territoriality

The malleability of the infrahumanization bias was tested varying the physical context in which the ingroup and the outgroup target were assessed. Using a sequential priming paradigm, Study 1 replicated the infrahumanization bias in a neutral context. Study 2 tested the hypothesis that there are contextual variations in infrahumanization. Specifically, Black targets were infrahumanized in a context familiar to White participants, and not in an unfamiliar context. Study 3 revealed that participants’ threat perceptions were reduced when ingroup targets appeared in familiar context, compared to Black targets. Theoretical implications for the infrahumanization bias are discussed.

Infrahumanization in children: An evaluation of 70 terms relating to humanity

BACKGROUND Research on infrahumanization has revealed that individuals attribute more secondary emotions to the in-group than to the out-group, whose capacity to experience them is denied or restricted. When this bias has been examined in children, researchers have used the same taxonomy of affective terms as that used with adults. The aim of this research is to conduct a normative study that will equip researchers with a taxonomy of humanity attributed to emotional terms specifically for children. METHODS Three hundred and sixty-three children aged between 11 and 12 responded to several questionnaires containing a total of 70 emotional terms, evaluated in eight dimensions associated with the perception of humanity. RESULTS Principal component analysis shows that children categorize implicit dimensions associated with humanity differently to adults. CONCLUSIONS This normative study enables the selection of graded emotional terms in humanity perceived by a child sample, in order to overcome current limitations in research on infrahumanization in children.

Do they feel the same as us?: The infrahumanization of individuals with Down syndrome

BACKGROUND Research on infrahumanization shows there is a strong tendency to deprive outgroups of the ability to experience secondary emotions when compared to ingroups. However, it is not known whether this tendency is also applied to social groups towards which ambivalent attitudes are held, such as individuals with Down syndrome. METHODS In the first study, participants were asked to attribute primary and secondary emotions to members of the ingroup (students) and outgroup (individuals with Down syndrome). The second study explored the effect of the physical features of Down syndrome on the differential association of emotions. A lexical decision task preceded by photographs of three face types (adults with Down syndrome, adults with ambiguous faces and adults without Down syndrome) was used for that purpose. RESULTS The results showed a higher attribution of secondary emotions to members of the ingroup than to members of the outgroup. Also revealed that participants associated secondary emotions with the faces of adults without Down syndrome and with ambiguous faces far more quickly than with faces of individuals with Down syndrome. CONCLUSIONS These results confirm the existence of infrahumanization bias and the effect of visibility of the stigma in this subtle type of prejudice.