Exploring Metadehumanization and Self-dehumanization From a Target Perspective

Stéphanie Demoulin, Pierre Maurage, and Florence Stinglhamber take issue with the fact that dehumanization studies have largely focused on the perpetrator's side of the interaction. In contrast, little is known about victims' experiences of dehumanization instances—that is, metadehumanization—and about people's propensity to self-dehumanize. In their chapter, they review the literature on dehumanization from a victim's perspective and present a theoretical working model linking metadehumanization and self-dehumanization. According to this model, when interpersonal, situational, environmental, or cultural antecedents trigger the thwarting of a person's fundamental needs, that person is likely to experience metadehumanization. The latter, in turn, leads to self-dehumanization to the extent that it is experienced as a situational and cross-interlocutors pervasive phenomenon. In addition, self-dehumanization can also result from the recognition of one's immoral acts. The chapter ends with a discussion on the future of both self-dehumanization and metadehumanization research, and, centrally, on the need to systematize research theorizing and methods, and to explore underlying mechanisms of both processes.