All Publications


  • Intergroup conflict as contest and disease. Trends in cognitive sciences Halevy, N., Landry, A. P. 2023

    Abstract

    Intergroup conflict has been conceptualized as a strategic interaction (conflict-as-contest) and separately as a pathological condition (conflict-as-disease). We highlight how insights and tools from the former perspective can potentially inform the latter. Harnessing the science of strategic decision-making can facilitate the development of novel approaches for mitigating intergroup conflict.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2023.10.004

    View details for PubMedID 37903703

  • Reducing Explicit Blatant Dehumanization by Correcting Exaggerated Meta-Perceptions SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PERSONALITY SCIENCE Landry, A. P., Schooler, J. W., Willer, R., Seli, P. 2022
  • Defining dehumanization broadly does not mean including everything. Trends in cognitive sciences Kteily, N. S., Landry, A. P. 2022

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2022.04.003

    View details for PubMedID 35577720

  • Dehumanization: trends, insights, and challenges. Trends in cognitive sciences Kteily, N. S., Landry, A. P. 1800

    Abstract

    Despite our many differences, one superordinate category we all belong to is 'humans'. To strip away or overlook others' humanity, then, is to mark them as 'other' and, typically, 'less than'. We review growing evidence revealing how and why we subtly disregard the humanity of those around us. We then highlight new research suggesting that we continue to blatantly dehumanize certain groups, overtly likening them to animals, with important implications for intergroup hostility. We discuss advances in understanding the experience of being dehumanized and novel interventions to mitigate dehumanization, address the conceptual boundaries of dehumanization, and consider recent accounts challenging the importance of dehumanization and its role in intergroup violence. Finally, we present an agenda of outstanding questions to propel dehumanization research forward.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.tics.2021.12.003

    View details for PubMedID 35042655

  • Dehumanization and mass violence: A study of mental state language in Nazi propaganda (1927-1945). PloS one Landry, A. P., Orr, R. I., Mere, K. 2022; 17 (11): e0274957

    Abstract

    Dehumanization is frequently cited as a precursor to mass violence, but quantitative support for this notion is scarce. The present work provides such support by examining the dehumanization of Jews in Nazi propaganda. Our linguistic analysis suggests that Jews were progressively denied the capacity for fundamentally human mental experiences leading up to the Holocaust. Given that the recognition of another's mental experience promotes moral concern, these results are consistent with the theory that dehumanization facilitates violence by disengaging moral concern. However, after the onset of the Holocaust, our results suggest that Jews were attributed a greater capacity for agentic mental states. We speculate this may reflect a process of demonization in which Nazi propagandists portrayed the Jews as highly capable of planning and intentionality while nonetheless possessing a subhuman moral character. These suggestive results paint a nuanced portrait of the temporal dynamics of dehumanization during the Holocaust and provide impetus for further empirical scrutiny of dehumanization in ecologically valid contexts.

    View details for DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0274957

    View details for PubMedID 36350823