La atribución de sentimientos en situaciones críticashumanos, infrahumanos y demonios
ISSN: 0213-4748, 1579-3680
Year of publication: 2008
Issue Title: X Congreso Nacional de Psicología Social
Volume: 23
Issue: 2
Pages: 133-141
Type: Article
More publications in: International Journal of Social Psychology, Revista de Psicología Social
Abstract
Infrahumanization bias consists in the tendency to reserve to one's own group the uniquely human traits, such as secondary emotions, and the avoidance to associate them with outgroups. The present research focuses on the study of this form of prejudice by analyzing the effect of the content of secondary emotions in the differential attribution towards the ingroup and other outgroups. Three types of secondary emotions were used: positive secondary emotions, suffering secondary emotions and secondary emotions related to cruelty. Results showed that people use a different pattern of secondary emotions to describe the emotional reaction of their own group and high status and low status outgroups in a catastrophe. These effects revealed the relevance of the distinction between positive, suffering and cruel secondary emotions, since the content of secondary emotions that are conceded or denied could show new patterns of infrahumanization, and improve the theoretical framework of infrahumanization.