Dehumanization, Partisanship, and the Mind (Story of the Clan)

(Illustrative Only)

Dehumanization is a dangerous force in any society. It has existed throughout human history, rooted in our tendency to group people, label them, and then treat some differently. Once we do that, it becomes easier to justify behaviors that would normally be unacceptable and/or illegal.

Partisan politics can make this worse. Parties create categories, expectations, and pressure. Ideally, people would vote based on their own beliefs, debate ideas openly, and work toward real consensus. But party pressure often pushes people to support individuals, actions, or legislation simply because their group expects it—not because they freely agree. Instead of bottom-up decision-making, it becomes top-down.

The philosophical Story of the Clan illustrates this problem. In the allegory, hate and corruption were tolerated as long as they targeted people that had been dehumanized. Actions that would never be taken against people of one group suddenly became acceptable. Once people learned to justify those actions through rumors and mistreatment, they struggled to stop or correct them. The depth of systemic breakdown clear. 

This leads us back to the purpose of law. Law is meant to be universal—it cannot violate constitutional rights. Not legally anyway. Yet the way we apply law is where inequality appears. People may say they believe in equality publically, yet unconsciously treat groups differently because of learned biases tied to race, religion, politics, or identity. Without awareness, these biases push the outgroup to be treated unfairly therby robbing them and society of full development. 

Lesson: Once we categories we can treat differently.

This happens in politics, disagreements over opinions, and even in areas connected to freedom of speech or religion. Without critical thinking, we repeat these mistakes again and again. This a major reason why certain choices are made, agreed upon, enacted and then historically regretted as the full scope of hate becomes apparent. Most not allowed to propose alternatives or voice their opinion leading to collective delusions and group think. The victims must eat the cost of other's choices.

Let us dig a little deeper....

The study below is useful because it looks at free word associations—how quickly our minds connect words and ideas without conscious thought. This reveals the hidden assumptions we carry from culture, personality, upbringing, social groups and political identity. When people consume only self-selected information, those assumptions harden, creating deeper justifications for harmful behavior through more group think.

The consequences are real: lost human potential, unequal treatment, and people being pushed out of opportunities or having rights eroded. Top performance can't be achieved without broad stakeholders. The best and brightest from any race, religion, politics, etc. should be encouraged without unfair restriction or mistreatment. It is our primary purpose and values that count and not the superficial difference or parties. Without wisome one might loose their best and brightest and weaken the whole.

The study is worth reading. It offers insight into how our minds form these automatic connections—and how becoming aware of them is the first step toward fairness.

Lesson: Once you become aware of your bias and can acknowledge that bias is part of human nature you can overcome them and make better decisions.

Imagined otherness fuels blatant dehumanization of outgroups

• The article introduces imagined otherness, the idea that people think another group sees the world very differently from a typical human, which increases dehumanization.

• Researchers studied Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. to see how this perceived difference in worldview relates to dehumanizing the other group.

• In a study with 771 participants, the more someone believed the other party’s thinking differed from a typical person’s, the more they dehumanized them, beyond simple dislike.

• A second experiment showed a causal effect: prompting people to see the other group’s worldview as very different led to higher dehumanization.

• The findings show that imagining another group’s mindset as fundamentally different can reduce how human they seem, helping explain dehumanization in political and social conflicts.

van Loon, A., Goldberg, A., & Srivastava, S. B. (2024). Imagined otherness fuels blatant dehumanization of outgroups. Communications Psychology, 2(1), Article 39. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-024-00087-4

*This is a philosphical, hypothetical, thought experiment that one can change the elements, debate and come to their own conclusion. Take with a grain of salt.