2017-09-09 18:26:18
It is believed that one of the causes of violence throughout history and in all human cultures is the act of failing to recognize the other, on whom violence is going to be exercised, as a human being. This process, called dehumanization, is what is believed to have allowed settlers to wipe out indigenous populations, whites to enslave blacks as if they were private property, and the Nazis to murder millions of Jews. The concept of the other as a non-human and inferior being is what allows the use of violence against him.
The dehumanization hypothesis is an idea that aims to help explain violence called instrumental, that is, violence that pursues personal gain or is the result of impulsive actions. In these cases, the perception of the other as a human being similar to oneself, with rights, feelings, etc. would mitigate or prevent the use of violence against him or her.
In contrast are the “moral violence”, whose perpetrators believe that their victims deserve it and that, in fact, their crime is a just and necessary act. Moral violence does not seem to need dehumanization to be carried out.
The dehumanization hypothesis could not, therefore, help to explain moral violence. On the contrary, it would need a process of humanization, a process by which intelligence, planning capacity and intentionality for their actions are attributed to those who are going to be violently executed.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Southern California study in a series of social psychology experiments whether dehumanization leads to instrumental violence, but humanization, although it can inhibit this type of violence, nevertheless leads to violence. moral violence.
The researchers recruit 187 volunteers online and submit them to five different tests aimed at determining their inclination to behave violently in certain situations. The results of these studies, published in the Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences, clearly indicate that while dehumanization spurs instrumental violence, humanization stimulates moral violence.
More information on Jorge Laborda’s Blog:
Referencia: Tage S. Raia et al (2017). Dehumanization increases instrumental violence, but not moral violence. www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1705238114
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