Mansur Khamitov, Jeff D. Rotman, and Jared Piazza — Perceiving the Agency of Harmful Agents: A Test of Dehumanization versus Moral Typecasting Accounts

15 published claims from this book.

• Agency denial to harmful agents holds across a second, non-mind-based operationalization.
• Agency denial to harmful agents is inferential, not driven by dislike or punishment motives.
• Agent-type contrasts are isolated by random assignment to identical targets.
• Causing unjustified harm violates an implicit social contract, warranting punishment.
• Condemnation of harmful agents is well-studied while their perceived agency is neglected.
• Dehumanization of offenders predicts how much retributive punishment is directed at them.
• Dehumanization theory predicts harmful agents are denied agency and humanness.
• Desire to punish offenders should amplify the denial of their agency.
• Harm with irrational motives yields lower agency attribution than harm with rational motives.
• If moral disengagement drives it, desire to punish amplifies agency denial.
• Low agency itself can signal a dangerous character deficiency warranting blame.
• Moral blame can be assigned to agents lacking high agency.
• Moral typecasting theory fails to predict how harmful agents are actually perceived.
• Study 1 manipulated agent category through contrasting crime and charity vignettes
• The harmfulness manipulation moved ratings strongly and in the intended direction.