Document Type
Article
Publication Date
3-1-2016
Journal / Book Title
Social Psychological and Personality Science
Abstract
Across three studies, we test the hypothesis that the perceived “humanness” of a human face can have its roots, in part, in low-level, feature-integration processes typical of normal face perception—configural face processing. We provide novel evidence that perceptions of humanness/dehumanization can have perceptual roots. Relying on the well-established face inversion paradigm, we demonstrate that disruptions of configural face processing also disrupt the ability of human faces to activate concepts related to humanness (Experiment 1), disrupt categorization of human faces as human (but not animal faces as animals; Experiment 2), and reduce the levels of humanlike traits and characteristics ascribed to faces (Experiment 3). Taken together, the current findings provide a novel demonstration that dehumanized responses can arise from bottom-up perceptual cues, which suggests novel causes and consequences of dehumanizing responses.
DOI
10.1177/1948550615609734
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Hugenberg, Kurt; Young, Steven; Rydell, Robert J.; Almaraz, Steven; Stanko, Kathleen A.; See, Pirita E.; and Wilson, John Paul, "The Face of Humanity: Configural Face Processing Influences Ascriptions of Humanness" (2016). Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 501.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/psychology-facpubs/501
Published Citation
Hugenberg, K., Young, S., Rydell, R. J., Almaraz, S., Stanko, K. A., See, P. E., & Wilson, J. P. (2016). The face of humanity: Configural face processing influences ascriptions of humanness. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(2), 167-175.