From humanitarian aid to humanization: When outgroup, but not ingroup, helping increases humanization

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Intergroup Relations
• Humanization Studies

Background:

• Dehumanization and infrahumanization reduce perceived humanity in others.
• Existing research focuses on decreasing humanization, with limited understanding of increasing it.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how intergroup and intragroup helping influence dehumanization and infrahumanization.
• To determine if helping behaviors can enhance outgroup humanization.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted examining the impact of intergroup and intragroup helping scenarios.
• Participants were exposed to different helping conditions following a natural disaster.

Main Results:

• Outgroup helping the ingroup reduced infrahumanization (Study 1) and dehumanization (Study 2).
• The amount of aid did not significantly alter the reduction in infrahumanization or dehumanization.
• Ingroup helping the outgroup did not decrease dehumanization or infrahumanization.

Conclusions:

• Intergroup helping initiated by the outgroup is effective in increasing outgroup humanization.
• Intragroup helping does not appear to influence perceptions of the outgroup.
• Findings highlight the potential of intergroup helping as a strategy to combat dehumanization.