Dehumanization redefines targets as less human, using terms like ‘animals’ and ‘vermin’ to get people to accept or engage in atrocities.

Evidence

What Is Dehumanization, Anyway? (Psychology Today)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Accusations of extreme wrongdoing can dehumanize scapegoats. — Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, 82; Dehumanization causes perpetrators to perceive victims as nonhuman and therefore not entitled to moral obligation — Dehumanization increases instrumental violence, but not moral violence; Categorizing one’s enemy as sub-human legitimizes increased violence and justifies violation of basic human rights. — Dehumanization (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• White-imposed dehumanization drives the black subject to seek whiteness #expands (0.70)
• Europeans project their repressed evil onto the racialized Other #expands (0.60)