“You Little Creep”: Evidence of Blatant Dehumanization of Short Groups

Jonas R. Kunst*, Nour Kteily, Lotte Thomsen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

23 Scopus citations

Abstract

Physical cues influence social judgments of others. For example, shorter individuals are evaluated less positively than taller individuals. Here, we demonstrate that height also impacts one of the most consequential intergroup judgments—attributions of humanity—and explore whether this effect is modulated by the tendency to value hierarchy maintenance. In Study 1, the shorter participants perceived a range of out-groups to be, the more they dehumanized them, and this tended to be particularly pronounced among those scoring high on social dominance orientation (SDO). In Study 2, participants dehumanized an out-group more when they were led to believe that it was relatively short. Finally, Study 3 applied a reverse correlation approach, demonstrating that participants in general, and especially those scoring high on SDO, represented shorter groups in ways less consistent with full humanity than they represented taller groups. Together, this research demonstrates that basic physical height cues shape the perceived humanity of out-groups.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)160-171
Number of pages12
JournalSocial Psychological and Personality Science
Volume10
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2019

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was funded by University of Oslo stipends (to J.R.K.) and by Early Career Research Group Leader Awards 0602-01839B from the Danish Research Council and 231157/F10 from the Norwegian Research Council (to L. T.).

Keywords

  • dehumanization
  • group height
  • physical cues
  • social dominance orientation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Social Psychology
  • Clinical Psychology

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