Browsing by Subject "Dehumanization"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Denial of Uniquely Human Characteristics for Voluntarily Childfree Individuals: Does Violating Social Norms Lead to Dehumanization?
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2016-04-08) Whitaker, Julia; Ashburn-Nardo, Leslie
    Nationally representative data consistently show that an increasing number of individuals are choosing not to have children (Time, 2013). Despite this trend, people who opt out of parenthood experience negativity (Berdahl & Moon, 2013). A recent study furthermore revealed that this negativity was driven by moral outrage (AshburnNardo, in press). Research on dehumanization includes moral sensibility as a characteristic of being human (Haslam, 2006). If those who forgo parenthood elicit moral outrage, it is possible that they are also seen as being less than human. The present research investigates the potential for dehumanization to occur in the form of denying uniquely human characteristics to voluntarily childfree individuals. In a between-subjects experiment, N participants were randomly assigned to evaluate a male vs. female married target who had chosen to have 0 vs. 2 children. They were then asked to rate the likelihood that the target was capable of experiencing uniquely human emotions (e.g., admiration, despair), as well as the likelihood that essential human traits (e.g., warm, irresponsible) and characteristics (e.g., rational, culturally refined) described the target. Statistical analyses are currently underway and are expected to reveal that, relative to targets who have children, targets that chose not to have children will be rated significantly less likely to experience uniquely human secondary emotions, to have complex cognitions and to have uniquely human traits. Target gender will be explored as a potential moderator of these effects. Historically, dehumanization has led to dangerous outcomes for targets. The present findings could suggest that a significant and growing portion of the population could be subject to discrimination in social and workplace situations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Does mind perception explain the uncanny valley effect? A meta-regression analysis and (de)humanization experiment.
    (Elsevier, 2024) MacDorman, Karl F.
    Gray and Wegner (2012) proposed that when robots look human, their appearance prompts attributions of experience, including sensations and feelings, which is uncanny. This theory, confusingly termed mind perception, differs from perceptual theories of the uncanny valley in that the robots' eeriness is not stimulus-driven. To explore this seminal theory, we conducted a meta-regression analysis of 10 experiments and a (de)humanization experiment. In the first part, experiments were identified in the literature that manipulated artificial entity's experience using descriptions. However, experiments with no observable stimuli yielded larger effects for experience and eeriness than those with robots and virtual reality characters. This finding undermines a theory that purports to explain how a robot's human likeness causes eeriness. Further, a second issue concerns Gray and Wegner's protocol based on a vignette design. Reading about an entity with experience activates thoughts that may not be activated when encountering it, and these thoughts may increase its eeriness. Therefore, the paper's second part focuses on an experiment we conducted with a novel humanization–dehumanization protocol. Participants' attitudes on robots' similarity to humans were gradually shifted to manipulate robots' perceived humanness, experience, and agency. However, the manipulation's effect on eeriness and coldness was mostly nonsignificant or counter to prediction. Differences in the robots' physical appearance had a much larger effect on their eeriness and coldness. In fact, as a mediator, experience mitigated the stimulus's overall effect of increasing eeriness. These results favor perceptual theories, rather than mind perception, in explaining the uncanny valley.