What is infrahumanization in simple terms?

Seeing people from other groups as feeling basic emotions like joy and anger but fewer refined emotions like longing or compassion, and so subtly as less human.

How does it differ from dehumanization?

Dehumanization includes openly seeing people as animals or machines, while infrahumanization is a subtle, everyday form that occurs even without hostility.

Infrahumanization

🧠 Psychology By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated October 27, 2026

Infrahumanization is the subtle tendency to see the ingroup as more human and to attribute less humanity to outgroups. It appears especially in attributing fewer secondary emotions considered uniquely human, such as nostalgia, compassion or pride, to outgroups than primary emotions such as joy, anger or fear that animals also feel. Jacques-Philippe Leyens and colleagues proposed it in 2000. A key feature is that it occurs even without open hostility.

Contents

1. Concept and origins
2. Evidence and consequences
3. Place within dehumanization research
4. FAQ
5. References

Concept and origins

Leyens and colleagues (2000) noted that people locate the essence of humanity in intelligence, language and refined emotions. They distinguished primary emotions, which animals also feel, from secondary emotions, considered uniquely human, and showed that people attribute primary emotions similarly to outgroups but attribute fewer secondary emotions to them. Because outgroups are seen not as nonhuman but as slightly less human, the phenomenon is called infrahumanization. It is in effect ingroup favoritism, as in social identity theory, expressed in emotion attribution.

Evidence and consequences

Leyens and colleagues (2001) confirmed across experiments that secondary emotions are linked more with the ingroup even between groups without conflict. Cortes and colleagues (2005) showed that the effect is not simply due to greater familiarity with the ingroup. Vaes and colleagues (2003) reported behavioral consequences: when an outgroup member expressed secondary emotions, people helped and approached less than when an ingroup member did. This work connects to research on aid for disaster victims and on intergroup emotions.

Place within dehumanization research

Haslam (2006) proposed an integrative model distinguishing dehumanization that denies uniquely human traits, likening people to animals, from dehumanization that denies human nature traits, likening them to machines; infrahumanization is a subtle version of the former. Haslam and Loughnan (2014) reviewed research linking dehumanization to the justification of violence, discrimination and moral exclusion. Kteily and colleagues (2015) showed that blatant dehumanization, placing some groups lower on an "ascent of man" image, still exists and predicts outcomes different from infrahumanization. This connects to research on groups targeted by contempt in the stereotype content model.

FAQ

What is infrahumanization in simple terms?: Seeing people from other groups as feeling basic emotions like joy and anger but fewer refined emotions like longing or compassion, and so subtly as less human.
How does it differ from dehumanization?: Dehumanization includes openly seeing people as animals or machines, while infrahumanization is a subtle, everyday form that occurs even without hostility.

Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26

References

Leyens, J.-P., Paladino, P. M., Rodriguez-Torres, R., Vaes, J., Demoulin, S., Rodriguez-Perez, A., & Gaunt, R. (2000). The emotional side of prejudice: The attribution of secondary emotions to ingroups and outgroups. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4(2), 186–197. The founding statement of infrahumanization.
Leyens, J.-P., Rodriguez-Perez, A., Rodriguez-Torres, R., Gaunt, R., Paladino, M.-P., Vaes, J., & Demoulin, S. (2001). Psychological essentialism and the differential attribution of uniquely human emotions to ingroups and outgroups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 31(4), 395–411. Experimental evidence on uniquely human emotions.
Vaes, J., Paladino, M. P., Castelli, L., Leyens, J.-P., & Giovanazzi, A. (2003). On the behavioral consequences of infrahumanization: The implicit role of uniquely human emotions in intergroup relations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(6), 1016–1034. Behavioral consequences of infrahumanization.
Cortes, B. P., Demoulin, S., Rodriguez, R. T., Rodriguez, A. P., & Leyens, J.-P. (2005). Infrahumanization or familiarity? Attribution of uniquely human emotions to the self, the ingroup, and the outgroup. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(2), 243–253. Rules out familiarity as an explanation.
Haslam, N. (2006). Dehumanization: An integrative review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10(3), 252–264. An integrative model of two forms of dehumanization.
Haslam, N., & Loughnan, S. (2014). Dehumanization and infrahumanization. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 399–423. A comprehensive Annual Review on the topic.
Kteily, N., Bruneau, E., Waytz, A., & Cotterill, S. (2015). The ascent of human: Evidence for blatant dehumanization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(5), 901–931. Distinguishes blatant dehumanization from subtle forms.

Reports and materials that use this theory (Korean)

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This article was last updated on October 27, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.