Edited by Peter Gidley, Wednesday, 5 Feb 2014, 20:43
A new run of DSE212 has just started (good luck all!). We're just about to kick off on the identity chapter, and a really relevant article has recently appeared in the New Scientist.
Directly concerned with social identity theory; that part of our identity that is rooted in our affiliations to the group(s) to which we belong.
The thrust of the article is how easily we can cast members of other groups in the role of an "less human" other, and how by dehumanising them we travel down the road to prejudice and discrimination. All this comes back to Henri Tajfel's elegant studies which teased out how little is required for us to start thinking in terms of "us" and "them"
Why do humans dehumanise others?
A new run of DSE212 has just started (good luck all!). We're just about to kick off on the identity chapter, and a really relevant article has recently appeared in the New Scientist.
OU library access through this link
http://www.newscientist.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/article/mg22129520.800-talent-for-prejudice-why-humans-dehumanise-others.html
Directly concerned with social identity theory; that part of our identity that is rooted in our affiliations to the group(s) to which we belong.
The thrust of the article is how easily we can cast members of other groups in the role of an "less human" other, and how by dehumanising them we travel down the road to prejudice and discrimination. All this comes back to Henri Tajfel's elegant studies which teased out how little is required for us to start thinking in terms of "us" and "them"