Associations and Analogies

Scientists are very interested in the ways we deny humanity to others, because this common tendency is the source of so much hate and violence in the world.

They claim that when someone insults another by comparing them to something sub-human, they often do it by either comparing the object of their disaffection to an animal or machine.

They add that while both animals and machines are both less than human, they are less than human in very different ways. For example,

• many animals lack traits that are unique to humans, like high intelligence and moral sensibility, wheras
  
• machines lack traits that form the foundation of “human nature”, such as warmth, flexibility, animation.
  

According to an entry in the We're Only Human weblog, psychologists Stephen Loughnan and Nick Haslam of the University of Melbourne ran an experiment to prove their predictions that, when marginalized:

• some people — like children and artists (characterized by "warmth, flexibility, animation")— tend to be associated with animals, whereas
  
• others — such as businessmen (chracterized by their logic skills and analytical acumen)— tend to be associated with machines
  

Their results supported their hypotheses.Consequently, the psychologists concluded that people have two distinct ways of defining humanity to ourselves—and two distinct ways of denying others’ their humanity.

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It would be interesting if the psychologists did a follow-up study to explore the seeming condradiction that people also make animal/machine comparisions when "elevating" or complimenting another.

For example, some of my closest artist friends have highly-developed business skills and approach their vocation with an eye toward what sells. They balance their need for personal expression with the practicalities of the "real world". Since the stereotype for artists is to be "uninhibited" and "irresponsible", they take pride when someone tells them that they're handling things "like a well-oiled machine."

What's more, one of the highest compliments that a salesman pay another is that someone is going after accounts "like an animal."

So maybe the real result of the original survey is that people tend to make non-human (not necessarily "less than human") analogies, regardless of whether they're praising or debasing someone.

Source: We're Only Human