Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T07:36:14.124Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Impact of Helping Behavior on Outgroup Infrahumanization

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Naira Delgado ,
Verónica Betancor ,
Armando Rodríguez-Pérez  and
Eva Ariño
Naira Delgado
Affiliation:
Universidad de La Laguna (Spain)
Verónica Betancor
Affiliation:
Universidad de La Laguna (Spain)
Armando Rodríguez-Pérez
Affiliation:
Universidad de La Laguna (Spain)
Eva Ariño*
Affiliation:
Universidad de La Laguna (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Eva Ariño Mateo. Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de la Laguna. 38205 - Tenerife (Spain). E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Infrahumanization research has verified that in intergroup contexts, there is a strong tendency to attribute secondary emotions, which are uniquely human, to the ingroup, while limiting that attribution in outgroups. Experiments have shown it to be as common as ingroup bias. However, it is not yet known what characteristics may mitigate this trend. This paper presents two studies. The first analyzes the impact of helping behavior on attributions of human traits to two fictitious groups. The second study's objective was to determine if members of the Spanish ingroup would infrahumanize an Ethiopian outgroup less when that outgroup performs prosocial behavior towards another group. Infrahumanization was determined by a lexical decision task, using the names of ingroup and outgroup members as priming. The results demonstrate that describing a fictitious group in altruistic terms increases their human profile (experiment one) and reduces infrahumanization (experiment two).

Los estudios sobre infrahumanización han confirmado que hay una sólida tendencia en los escenarios intergrupales a atribuir al endogrupo la capacidad de experimentar sentimientos, una emoción exclusivamente humana, a la vez que se restringe esa posibilidad a los exogrupos. Aunque se trata de un fenómeno tan común como el favoritismo endogrupal, aún se sabe muy poco sobre las características que pueden atenuar esta tendencia. En este artículo se presentan dos investigaciones. En la primera se estudia el impacto de la conducta de ayuda en la atribución de rasgos humanos a dos grupos ficticios. El objetivo de la segunda fue determinar si hay una menor infrahumanización del exogrupo etíope, frente al endogrupo españoles cuando aquel lleva a cabo una conducta prosocial respecto a otro grupo. La infrahumanización se determinó mediante una tarea de decisión léxica empleando como priming nombres de miembros del endogrupo y del exogrupo. Los resultados muestran que describir en términos altruistas a un grupo ficticio incrementa su perfil humano (experimento uno) y reduce su infrahumanización (experimento dos).

Keywords

infrahumanizationingroupoutgroupprosocial behaviorsecondary emotionsinfrahumanizaciónendogrupoexogrupoconducta prosocialemociones secundarias
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 15 , Issue 3 , November 2012 , pp. 1099 - 1109
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 230–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.71.2.230CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bar-Tal, D. (1989). Delegitimization: The extreme case of stereotyping. In Bar-Tal, D., Gauman, C. F., Kruglanski, A., & Stroebe, W. (Eds.), Stereotyping and prejudice: Changing conceptions (pp. 169–182). Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkowitz, L. (1984). Some effects of thoughts on anti and prosocial influences of media events: A cognitiveneoassociation analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 410–427. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.95.3.410CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Betancor, V., Rodríguez-Pérez, A., Quiles, M. N., & Rodríguez-Torres, R. (2005). Relación de la infrahumanización del exogrupo con los procesos de inferencia y memoria [Outgroup infrahumanization in relation to inference and memory processes]. Psicothema, 17, 447–452.Google Scholar
Blackman, J., & Hornstein, H. (1977). Newscasts and the social actuary. Public Opinion Quarterly, 41, 295–313. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/268389CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castano, E., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (2006). Not quite human: Infrahumanization in response to collective responsibility for intergroup killing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 804–818. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.90.5.804CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlston, D. E., & Skowronski, J. J. (2005). Linking versus thinking: Evidence for the different associative and attributional bases of spontaneous trait transference and spontaneous trait inference. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 884–898. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.6.884CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carlston, D. E., & Smith, E. R. (1996). Principles of mental representation. In Higgins, E. T. & Kruglanski, A. W. (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (pp. 184–210). New York, NY: Guilford.Google Scholar
Clark, M., & Isen, A. (1982). Toward understanding the relationship between feeling states and social behavior. In Hastorf, A. & Isen, A. (Eds.), Cognitive social psychology (pp. 73–108). New York, NY: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Collins, A., & Loftus, E. (1975). Aspreading-activation theory of semantic processing. Psychological Review, 82, 407–428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cortés, B. (2005). Looking for conditions leading to infrahumanization. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Catholic University of Louvain. Lovain-la-Neuve, Belgium.Google Scholar
Cortés, B., Demoulin, S., Viki, T., Rodríguez-Torres, R., Rodríguez-Pérez, A., & Leyens, J. Ph. (2005). Infrahumanization or familiarity? Attribution of uniquely human emotions to the self, the ingroup and the outgroup. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 243–253. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0146167204271421CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dasgupta, N., Banaji, M. R., & Abelson, R. P. (1999). Group entitativity and group perception: Associations between physical features and psychological judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 991–1003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.77.5.991CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Delgado, N., Pacios, A., Rodríguez-Pérez, A., & Betancor, V. (2008). La atribución de sentimientos en situacionescríticas: Humanos, infrahumanos y demonios [The attribution of secondary emotions in disasters: Human beings, infra-humans and devils]. Revista de Psicología Social, 23, 133–141. http://dx.doi.org/10.1174/021347408784135814CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delgado, N., Rodríguez-Pérez, P. A., & Rodríguez, T. R. (2006). [Infra-humanization and contexts of intergroup comparison]. Unpublished raw data.Google Scholar
Delgado, N., Rodríguez-Pérez, A., Vaes, J., Leyens, J. Ph., & Betancor, V. (2009). Priming effects of violence on infrahumanization. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 12, 699–714. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1368430209344607CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demoulin, S., Cortés, B. P., Viki, T. G., Rodríguez-Pérez, A., Rodríguez, R. T., Paladino, M. P., & Leyens, J. Ph. (2009). The role of ingroup identification in infrahumanization. International Journal of Psychology, 44, 4–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207590802057654CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Demoulin, S., Leyens, J. Ph., Paladino, M. P., Rodríguez-Torres, R., Rodríguez-Pérez, A., & Dovidio, J. F. (2004). Dimensions of ‘uniquely’and ‘non-uniquely’human emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 18, 71–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02699930244000444CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demoulin, S., Rodríguez-Torres, R., Rodríguez-Pérez, A., Vaes, J., Paladino, P., Gaunt, R., … Leyens, J. Ph. (2004). Emotional prejudice can lead to infra-humanization. European Review of Social Psychology, 15, 259–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, D. T., & Malone, P. S. (1995). The correspondence bias. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 21–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.117.1.21CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haslam, S. A., & Turner, J. C. (1992). Context-dependent variation in social stereotyping 2: The relationship between frame of reference, self-categorization and accentuation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 22, 251–277. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420220305CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haslam, S. A., Turner, J. C., Oakes, P. J., McGarty, C., & Hayes, B. K. (1992). Context-dependent variation in social stereotyping 1: The effects of intergroup relations as mediated by social change and frame of reference. European Journal of Social Psychology, 22, 3–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420220104CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoffman, C., & Hurst, N. (1990). Gender stereotypes: Perception or rationalization? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 197–208. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.58.2.197CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holloway, S., Tucker, L., & Hornstein, H. A. (1977). The effects of social and non-social information on interpersonal behavior of males: The news makes news. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 514–522. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.35.7.514CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornstein, H. A., LaKind, E., Frankel, G., & Manne, S. (1975). Effects of knowledge about remote social events on prosocial behavior, social conception, and mood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 1038–1046. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.32.6.1038CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, E. E., & Davis, K. E. (1965). From acts to dispositions: The attribution process in social psychology. In Berkowitz, L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 219–266). New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Landman, J., & Manis, M. (1983). Social cognition: Some historical and theoretical perspectives. In Berkowitz, L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 16, pp. 49–123). San Francisco, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lang, P. J. (1979). A bio-informational theory of emotional imagery. Psychophysiology, 16, 495–512. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1979.tb01511.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leyens, J. Ph., Cortés, B. P., Demoulin, S., Dovidio, J., Fiske, S. T., Gaunt, R., … Vaes, J. (2003). Emotional prejudice, essentialism, and nationalism the 2012 Tajfel lecture. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 703–717. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.170CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leyens, J. Ph., Demoulin, S., Vaes, J., Gaunt, R., & Paladino, M. P. (2007). Infra-humanization: The wall of group differences. Journal of Social Issues and Policy Review, 1, 139–172. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-2409.2007.00006.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leyens, J. Ph., Paladino, P. M., Rodríguez, R. T., Vaes, J., Demoulin, S., Rodríguez-Pérez, A., & Gaunt, R. (2000). The emotional side of prejudice: The attribution of secondary emotions to ingroups and outgroups. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 186–197. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15327957PSPR0402_06CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leyens, J. Ph., Rodríguez-Pérez, A., Rodríguez-Torres, R. T., Gaunt, R., Paladino, P. M., & Vaes, J. (2001). Psychological essentialism and the differential attribution of uniquely human emotions to ingroups and outgroups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 31, 395–411. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.50CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macrae, C. N., Bodenhausen, G. V., & Milne, A. B. (1995). The dissection of selection in person perception: Inhibitory processes in social stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 397–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.69.3.397CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mae, L., Carlston, D. E., & Skowronski, J. J. (1999). Spontaneous trait transference to familiar communicators: Is a little knowledge a dangerous thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 233–246. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.77.2.233CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Opotow, S. (1990). Moral exclusion and injustice: An introduction. Journal of Social Issues, 46, 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1990.tb00268.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paladino, P. M., Leyens, J. Ph., Rodríguez-Torres, R., Rodríguez-Pérez, A., Gaunt, R., & Demoulin, S. (2002). Differential association of uniquely and non uniquely human emotions to the ingroup and the outgroups. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 5, 105–117. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1368430202005002539CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paladino, P. M., Vaes, J., Castano, E., Demoulin, S., & Leyens, J. Ph. (2004). Emotional infrahumanization in intergroup relations: The role of national identification in the attribution of secondary emotions to Italians and Germans. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive/Current Psychology of Cognition, 22, 519–536.Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Pérez, A., Betancor, V., & Delgado, N. (2009). La norma social sobre la expresión del prejuicio explícito hacia diferentes grupos sociales [The social norm related to the explicit expression of prejudice towards different social groups]. Revista de Psicología Social, 24, 17–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodríguez-Pérez, A., Betancor, V., Rodríguez-Torres, R., Quiles, M. N., Delgado, N., & Coello, E. (2005). El efecto de las identidades nacionales con distintos niveles de inclusividad en el prejuicio hacia exogrupos [The effects of identities with different levels of inclusion in prejudice towards outgroups]. Psicothema, 17, 441–446.Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Pérez, A., Delgado, N., Betancor, V., Leyens, J. Ph., & Vaes, J. (2011). Infrahumanization of outgroups throughout the world. The role of similarity, intergroup friendship, knowledge of the outgroup, and status. Anales de Psicología, 27, 679–687.Google Scholar
Rodríguez-Torres, R., Leyens, J. Ph., Rodríguez-Pérez, A., Betancor, V., Quiles, M., Demoulin, S., & Cortés, B. (2005). The lay distinction between primary and secondary emotions: A spontaneous categorization? International Journal of Psychology, 40, 100–107. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207590444000221CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohmann, A., Niedenthal, P. M., Brauer, M., Castano, E., & Leyens, J. Ph. (2005). The attribution of primary and secondary emotions to the ingroup and to the outgroup: The case of equal status countries. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M., & Taylor, M. (1992). Category labels and social reality: Do we view social categories as natural kinds? In Semin, G. R. & Fiedler, K. (Eds.), Language, interaction and social cognition (pp. 11–36). London, England: Sage.Google Scholar
Srull, T. K., & Wyer, R. S. (1989). Person memory and judgement. Psychological Review, 96, 58–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0033-295X.96.1.58CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tajfel, H., Billig, M., Bundy, R., & Flament, C. (1971). Social categorization and intergroup behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1, 149–178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420010202CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uleman, J. S., Newman, L. S., & Moskowitz, G. B. (1996). People as flexible interpreters: Evidence and issues from spontaneous trait inference. In Zanna, M. P. (Eds.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 28, pp. 211–279). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
van Calster, B., & Hoorens, V. (2002, June). Trait transference and the logic of conversation. Paper presented at the XIII annual meeting of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology. San Sebastián, Spain.Google Scholar
Viki, G. T. (2004). Identification and infra-humanization. Unpublished data. University of Kent, England.Google Scholar
Viki, G. T., Winchester, L., Titshall, L., Chisango, T., Pina, A., & Russell, R. (2006). Beyond secondary emotions: The infrahumanization of outgroups using human-related and animal-related words. Social Cognition, 24, 753–775. http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/soco.2006.24.6.753CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittenbrink, B., Judd, C. M., & Park, B. (1997). Evidence for racial prejudice at the implicit level and its relationship with questionnaire measures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 262–274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.72.2.262CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wyer, R., & Carlston, D. (1979). Social cognition, inference and attribution. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar