Animals and androids: Implicit associations between social categories and nonhumans

Stephen Loughnan, Nick Haslam*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

People commonly ascribe lesser humanness to others than to themselves. Two senses of humanness appear to be involved: attributes that are unique to humans and those that constitute essential "human nature." Denying uniquely human and human-nature attributes to other people may implicitly liken them to animals and automata, respectively. In the present study, the go/no-go association task was used to assess implicit associations among social categories exemplifying the two senses of humanness, traits representing these senses, and the two types of nonhumans. Congruent associations (among artists, human-nature traits, and animals; among businesspeople, uniquely human traits, and automata) were consistently stronger than incongruent associations. Explicit ratings supported these differential associations. Social perception may involve two subtle ways of dehumanizing others.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)116-121
Number of pages6
JournalPsychological Science
Volume18
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2007

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • DEHUMANIZATION
  • COMPETENCE
  • WARMTH

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