Machine vs Animal: Dehumanization in the Context of the Israeli-Gaza Conflict

This study examined dehumanization in the context of the current Israeli-Gaza conflict. Haslam (2006) proposed a model in which dehumanization can take on two different forms. Mechanistic dehumanization is a process by which a person or group comes to be perceived as lacking in warmth, emotion, and compassion. In animalistic dehumanization, a person or group is perceived as lacking civility and self-control. These different routes/types of dehumanization are thought to be partially determined by factors such as power status of the group(s), stereotypes of the group (warmth v. competence), and factors related to the perceiver(s) themselves. In addition, liking has been shown to be a significant (negative) predictor of dehumanization. In the current study, participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions in which they read a short vignette describing a fictitious person named Issac. Depending upon condition, he was either depicted as being Israeli, Palestinian, or American. We assessed both types of dehumanization using items from Haslam’s past research. We also included political affiliation (Democrat v. Republican) as an independent factor. A 3 x 2 (condition by political group) ANOVA revealed a significant interaction between the variables such that Democrats dehumanized Issac more when he was depicted as being Palestinian compared to Israeli or American. Republicans dehumanized Issac more when he was described as being American compared to the other two conditions. This was true across both animalistic and mechanistic dehumanization. As predicted, liking toward Issac was negatively related to both types of dehumanization. Potential implications of these findings will be discussed in our poster.