Recognizing humanity: dehumanization predicts neural mirroring and empathic accuracy in face-to-face interactions

Dehumanization is the failure to recognize the cognitive and emotional complexities of the people around us. While its presence has been well documented in horrific acts of violence, it is also theorized to play a role in everyday life. We measured its presence and effects in face-to-face dyadic int...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social cognitive and affective neuroscience 2021-05, Vol.16 (5), p.463-473
Main Authors: Simon, Jeremy C, Gutsell, Jennifer N
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Brain - physiology
Dehumanization
Electroencephalography
Emotions - physiology
Empathy - physiology
Humans
Interpersonal Relations
Male
Original Manuscript
Violence
Young Adult
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Summary:Dehumanization is the failure to recognize the cognitive and emotional complexities of the people around us. While its presence has been well documented in horrific acts of violence, it is also theorized to play a role in everyday life. We measured its presence and effects in face-to-face dyadic interactions between strangers and found that not only was there variance in the extent to which they perceived one another as human, but this variance predicted neural processing and behavior. Specifically, participants showed stronger neural mirroring, indexed by electroencephalography (EEG) mu-suppression, in response to partners they evaluated as more human, suggesting their brains neurally simulated those targets' actions more. Participants were also marginally more empathically accurate about the emotions of partners deemed more human and performed better with them on a cooperative task. These results suggest that there are indeed differences in our recognition of the humanity of people we meet-demonstrated for the first time in a real, face-to-face interaction-and that this mundane variation affects our ability to neurally simulate, cooperate and empathize.
ISSN:1749-5016
1749-5024
DOI:10.1093/scan/nsab014