Abstract
This research demonstrated that human nature (HN) and human uniqueness (HU) traits capture the content of people’s stereotypes about liberals and conservatives, respectively. Consistent with expectations derived from dehumanization theory, people more strongly associated HN traits with liberals than with conservatives, and more strongly associated HU traits with conservatives than with liberals. A trait × target ideology × perceiver ideology × trait valence interaction suggested that both liberals and conservatives more strongly associated their in-group with stereotype-consistent positive qualities, and their out-group with stereotype-consistent negative qualities. Mediation analyses revealed that out-group antipathy, but not in-group liking, explained the relationship between ideology and political out-group dehumanization. Finally, humanness traits captured subtle differences in political stereotype content not captured with the warmth and competence ratings derived from the stereotype content model. Together, these results indicate that differential attributions of HN and HU traits capture political stereotype content and function to subtly dehumanize one’s political opponents.
Highlights
This research demonstrated that human nature (HN) and human uniqueness (HU) traits capture the content of Americans’ stereotypes about liberals and conservatives, respectively
We test our primary hypotheses regarding the differential attributions of HN and HU traits to liberals and conservatives using a 3 (Perceiver Ideology: liberal, moderate, conservative) × 2 (Target Ideology: liberal, conservative) × 2 (Trait: HN, HU) × 2 (Valence: positive, negative) mixed model ANOVA, with Perceiver Ideology as a between-subjects factor and Target Ideology, Trait, and Valence as within-subjects factors
We examined whether antipathy towards conservatives explained the relationship between liberalism and the mechanistic dehumanization of conservatives, and whether antipathy towards liberals explained the relationship between conservatism and the animalistic dehumanization of liberals
Summary
This research demonstrated that human nature (HN) and human uniqueness (HU) traits capture the content of Americans’ stereotypes about liberals and conservatives, respectively. Humanness traits captured subtle differences in political stereotype content not captured with the warmth and competence dimensions derived from the stereotype content model. Together, these results indicate that differential attributions of HN and HU traits capture political stereotype content and function to subtly dehumanize one’s political opponents. S. liberals and conservatives through the perspective of Moral Foundations Theory (see Graham et al, 2013) They found that regardless of political orientation, people more strongly associated liberals with moral foundations concerning care for individuals (especially victimized individuals) and conservatives with moral foundations concerning the health and integrity of their ingroup
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