Dehumanization and self-reported proclivity to torture prisoners of war

• Published in: Journal of experimental social psychology Vol. 49; no. 3; pp. 325 - 328
• Main Authors: Viki, G. Tendayi, Osgood, Daniel, Phillips, Sabine
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Diego Elsevier Inc 01.05.2013; Academic Press
• Subjects: Behavioural psychology; Christians; Dehumanization; Genocide; Ingroup; Muslims; Out-groups; Outgroup; Prisoner treatment; Prisoners of war; Threat; Torture; Violence; War; Outgroup; Torture; War; Dehumanization; Violence; Ingroup
• ISSN: 0022-1031; 1096-0465
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2012.11.006

Several authors have argued that dehumanization may be the psychological process that underlies people's willingness to torture outgroup members. In the current research, we directly examined this question among Christian participants, with Muslims as the target outgroup. Across two studies, we found that to the extent that Christians dehumanized Muslims, they were more likely to self-report the willingness to torture Muslim prisoners of war. We also found that perceiving Muslims as a threat moderated the relationship between dehumanization and the self-reported proclivity to torture. These findings support the propositions made by previous authors on the role of dehumanization in torture, war and genocide. ► We found that dehumanization is related to self-reported willingness to torture. ► Threats moderated the connection between dehumanization and willingness to torture. ► The connection between dehumanization and torture is stronger when threat is high.