Dehumanization and social representations: analysis of Twitter comments on the Yanomami crisis in Brazil

This study analyzes the arguments about the humanitarian tragedy involving the Yanomami people published on Twitter between January 21 and 23, 2023. Based on the theories of social representations and dehumanization, we investigated the construction of arguments through intergroup relations. We collected 506,773 messages containing the term “Yanomami”. A Social Network Analysis (SNA) revealed two main groups: a group made up of profiles linked to the Lulista left and another made up of profiles linked to the Bolsonaro right. The 15 profiles with the highest indegree in each group made up a corpus of 148 texts, shared 170,168 times, analyzed by similarity in the IRaMuTeQ software. All profiles were anonymized. The analysis revealed strong polarization. The group linked to President Lula emphasized the Bolsonaro government’s negligence in the face of repeated warnings about the Yanomami crisis. On the other hand, the group aligned with former president Bolsonaro downplayed the crisis and defended his actions, such as food distribution, indicating that the left was organizing a “narrative” against the former President. This polarization reflects the “battle of ideas” taking place in Brazil, making it difficult for the debate on the issue to focus on the humanitarian crisis of indigenous peoples. The study recommends network analysis combined with lexicographic analysis for future research into social representations, highlighting its effectiveness in identifying groups formed by interactions in network conversations. Understanding these dynamics is crucial to promoting justice and dignity for the Yanomami people.