Treating all humanity as one’s in-group improves intergroup relations

Evidence

Traditionally, social psychologists have explored the humanity of human beings as something that can be operationalized, measured, quantifi ed, by highlighting both positive and negative aspects. For instance, social psychologists have shown that thinking of ‘all humanity’ as our in-group can be a positive force for intergroup relations. This is social psychology’s optimistic message grounded in its attempt to fi nd a measurable and quantifi able indicator of the humanity of human beings. A more pessimistic message stems from the idea that humanness is a ‘fundamental dimension of social perception’ (Haslam and Loughnan, 2012 , p. 91) and that restricting humanity to in-groups can have negative consequences for intergroup relations. — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 637

Related

• People attribute uniquely human emotions only to their own group (similarity 0.85)
• Denying shared humanity creates non-relation rather than strangeness within a group (similarity 0.78)
• In-group perpetrated misdeeds ironically heighten victim dehumanization (similarity 0.78)