The brain’s amygdala vigilance toward outgroups relaxes when people are treated as individuals
Evidence
When people treat the other person categorically on one dimension (age), the amygdala also responds categorically on other dimensions (race). But when people treat the other as a unique individual, the amygdala relaxes its vigilance. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 352 (
#expands, via linked claim)
When people treat the other person categorically on one dimension (age), the amygdala also responds categorically on other dimensions (race). But when people treat the other as a unique individual, the amygdala relaxes its vigilance. This exemplifies how new methods can revive old insights. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 352 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Both are characterized by the suspension of individual-personal differences. But in the first case, this suspension causes features to come to the fore which lie, as it were, above the individual character; whereas, in the second case, those are activated which lie below. For within a mass of people in sensory contact, innumerable suggestions and nervous influences play back and forth; they deprive the individual of the calmness and autonomy of reflection and action. In a crowd, therefore, the most ephemeral incitations often grow, like avalanches, into the most disproportionate impulses, and thus appear to eliminate the higher, differentiated and critical functions of the individual. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 345 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Empathic people are more susceptible to subliminal cues and influence — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 945; Misperceived outgroup extremity drives real polarization through a self-fulfilling spiral.; Categorical perception of outgroups triggers amygdala vigilance, individualization relaxes it — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 352 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Categorical perception of outgroups triggers amygdala vigilance, individualization relaxes it
#expands(0.97) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 352 - Categorical treatment activates amygdala vigilance while individuation relaxes it
#expands(0.96) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 352 - Crowds arouse sub-individual instincts while organized groups transcend individuals
#complicates(0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 345