The Elephant in the Room: The Often Neglected Relevance of Speciesism in Bias Towards Ethnic Minorities and Immigrants

Abstract

The area of intergroup bias and, specifically attitudes towards ethnic minorities and/or immigrants, has received a great amount of investigation by (cross-cultural) psychologists, spanning many theories and perspectives (Hewstone et al., 2002). However, one perspective rarely taken in mainstream psychology is one that acknowledges the inter-linkage of bias towards ethnic minorities and/or immigrants and that towards non-human animals (NHAs), despite relatively substantial literature outside of psychology emphasizing it (Singer, 2002). In the present paper, we draw from relevant literature outside and inside of psychology that speaks to the connectivity between attitudes towards marginalized human outgroups and NHAs, focusing on the mechanism of dehumanization in intergroup bias. We also shed light on more recent psychological research, specifically the Interspecies Model of Prejudice (IMP; Costello & Hodson, 2010; Costello & Hodson, 2014a; 2014b) as an example on how psychological research could incorporate speciesism into the discussion of intergroup bias. It is hoped that highlighting the existing rare, yet valuable, research endeavours within psychology inspires further engagement from psychologists interested in cross-cultural, intersectional, and diversity research in order to help better the lives of both marginalized human outgroups and NHAs.