Small unfamiliar foreign outgroups get dehumanized in simplified ethnophaulisms

Evidence

In addition, valence and complexity are affected by many of the same factors. Groups that are more salient because they are smaller, less familiar, and more foreign tend to be cognitively represented with less complexity, and more negativity, in ethnophaulisms (Mullen & Johnson, 1993, 1995; Mullen et al., 2000, 2001). This combination of low complexity and negative valence in ethnophaulisms clearly resonates with Allport’s (1954/1979, p. 3403) depiction of the hated outgroup as something despicable and less than fully human. The tendency to use ethnophaulisms of low complexity and negative valence for salient ethnic outgroups may reflect the same basic process by which people ascribe human essence to their ingroup while “infrahumanizing” outgroups (see also Leyens et al., 2001). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1284

Categorization

• XREF: Links to earlier vault claims that simplified, one-dimensional cognitive representation of outgroups enables dehumanization and exclusion in contact theory.