Losing Our Humanity: The Self-Dehumanizing Consequences of Social Ostracism

When people dehumanize others, they also dehumanize the self while responding to their harmful behaviors. When an individual is a perpetrators of social ostracism, one sees themselves as less human compared with when they engage in non-aversive interpersonal interactions due to the perceived immorality of their behavior. On the other hand, when an individual perpetrates social ostracism they see themselves as less human. Consequences of self-dehumanization are independent of any effects of self-esteem or mood of the person. In the human society, our humanity is caught up, bound up inextricably, with each other. When an individual dehumanizes the other, they inexorably dehumanize themselves. This is from the spirit of “Ubuntu” where it states that “I am because we are” meaning that we cannot exist independent of our relationships with others. We need others and also we need to feel that they are human so that we also feel human and complete. This in other words means that the moment we harm others, our humanity is reduced due to treating others without dignity and respect.

Inhuman acts affect both the victim and the perpetrators, when people hurt or harm others, they are seen to be less humans who cannot stand being human enough and uphold dignity and respect for themselves and others thus making them less good to be rehabilitated. An observer of the dehumanizing acts sees the perpetrators are dangerous, irrevocable and worthy of retribution because causing harm to another person may also affect perceptions of the self. What many fail to understand from this kind of an approach is that one’s humanity is dependent on the humanity of those around us. And very little is known and said about the self-concept of perpetrators of dehumanization where self-dehumanization is seen to be the mistreatment of others as a normal response. When an individual comes to term with their dehumanizing acts, there is a functional response that comes from them. When one feels that they have lost their humanity, they may be motivated to engage in a pro-social way with others thereby reconnecting them back into their human community and re-establishing their moral status. The common belief that is one sided when it comes to dehumanization makes us overlook the need of perpetrators for psycho-social rehabilitation, they too are empty and need to be filled with desire for self-love and self-respect.

Reviewed from the work of Bastian B.; Jetten J.; Chen H.; Radke M. R. H.; Harding F. J.; Fasoli F. (2012).