Infrahumanisation

Infrahumanisation is the tacitly held belief that one's own group is more fully human than an out-group, which is seen as less human, and it can arise from a comparison in which the in-group is viewed as fully human while the out-group is viewed as lacking humanness. The term was coined by Jacques-Philippe Leyens and colleagues in the early 2000s to distinguish this everyday phenomenon from dehumanisation, the outright denial of humanness associated with extreme intergroup violence such as genocide, since infrahumanisation instead arises when people view their in-group and an out-group as essentially different and reserve a full human essence for the in-group alone. The belief is seldom consciously endorsed and is instead reflected in the way people tacitly think about an out-group, which researchers have typically studied by examining the types of emotions people believe members of the in-group and out-group are capable of feeling.