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Over six million people were tortured
and killed during the Holocaust. People

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often find it hard to imagine how
something like that could ever happen.

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You yourself might be wondering how
could someone commit such a horrible act

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towards another person. One possible
explanation to explain how someone could

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be able to starve beat or torture
another human being during World War II,

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and how people are still able to commit
such horrible acts still to this day, is

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the Theory of Dehumanization. Today i'll
be telling you how researchers define

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dehumanization, provide you with some
examples of dehumanization, and talk

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about prevention methods that are
currently being researched. Harrison and Fisk

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defined dehumanization as "a cognitive
bias characterized by the spontaneous

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failure to consider mental contents - the
thoughts and feelings in a social

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targets mind."  In other words the
inability to think about how someone

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might be thinking or feeling in the
moment. They were able to develop their

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definition from a previous study where
they showed their participants images of

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individuals in an out group and we're
then able to see that when shown these

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images the areas of the brain that
registered disgust actually lit up. This

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provided the evidence to support their
claim that dehumanization is a cognitive

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process that happens automatically. We
fail to empathize with members

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of out groups and often characterize
members of out groups as less than human.

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The implicit response of not being able
to consider how another person is

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thinking or feeling
provides the barrier that doesn't allow

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individuals to empathize with members
about groups. A past example of

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dehumanization could be the Tuskegee
Experiment. This experiment started in

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the 1930s and lasted for 40 years.
African American men were told that they

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could receive free health care, when in
reality they were being injected with

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the syphilis virus. Obviously this is
extremely unethical and led to a lot of

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the regulations we see surrounding
research today, but it shows how

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scientists were able to take an entire
population of African American men and

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consider them as less than human and
something to be experimented on. The

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Tuskegee Experiment is just one example
that relates to how out groups and

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minorities have been investigated as a
focus of dehumanization for years. Ethnic

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groups are among the many groups of
people that are dehumanized daily. An

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example of everyday dehumanization, that
we have probably all experienced, is when

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you're in your car, stopped at a red
light, and you may be trying really hard

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not to make eye contact with the
panhandling homeless person on the

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corner of the street. Most people may be trying to avoid that

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awkward feeling inside,
not wanting to consider how that person

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might be thinking or feeling.
Our ability to dehumanize has

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had many negative side effects, like
discrimination and the development of an

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unwillingness to engage in helping
behavior that could benefit members of

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out groups. Due to the negative effects
of dehumanization, researchers then

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became focused on the question of "what
can we do about it?" This led to the study

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of prevention methods. One prevention
method currently being researched is the

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use of counter stereotypes. Counter
stereotypes are an idea or object that

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goes against the standard mental picture
that is held in common by members of a

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group. An example of a counter stereotype
could be a female mechanic or a male

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caregiver. In their research Prati and
colleagues prompted their participants

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with a counter stereotype. This then
helped the participants to rely less on

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pre-existing stereotypes and promoted
diversity in their thinking. In a

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generalized way, the use of counter
stereotypes can decrease reliance on

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heuristic thinking and generate a more
accepting perspective of various out

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groups and diversity. Another prevention
method that is being researched is the

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use of perspective-taking.
In Shih and colleagues experiment, they

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use perspective-taking instruction to
decrease bias towards their target group.

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All it took was to ask the participants
to imagine if they were the person in

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the story. When asked to imagine what it
would be like to be in the position of

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someone else, it shifts our way of
thinking to becoming inclusive,

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considering that person
to then be a part of the in-group rather

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then the out-group. Just that simple
shift in thinking can start to decrease

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implicit biases we have and has been
shown to increase the association of

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"good" or "desirable" characteristics to an
out group. Although researchers have

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found some promising methods to decrease
dehumanization, there is still a need for

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more research to be conducted.
Dehumanizing an individual or group can

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be voluntary, however, in most cases
dehumanization is often an automatic

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cognitive reaction to an out-group, that
in the past has led to mass murder such

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as the Holocaust, and currently prevents
people from empathizing with members of

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out groups. It's important to be aware, to
understand what dehumanization is, and

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how it plays a role in our lives.
Future research is necessary in order to

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decrease the rates of dehumanization
that we see today. Thank you for

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listening to my presentation