Embracing Humanity in the Face of Death: Why Do Existential Concerns Moderate Ingroup Humanization?

Abstract

People humanize their ingroup to address existential concerns about their mortality, but the reasons why they do so remain ambiguous. One explanation is that people humanize their ingroup to bolster their social identity in the face of their mortality. Alternatively, people might be motivated to see their ingroup as more uniquely human (UH) to distance themselves from their corporeal “animal” nature. These explanations were tested in Australia, where social identity is tied less to UH and more to human nature (HN) which does not distinguish humans from animals. Australians attributed more HN traits to the ingroup when mortality was salient, while the attribution of UH traits remained unchanged. This indicates that the mortality-buffering function of ingroup humanization lies in reinforcing the humanness of our social identity, rather than just distancing ourselves from our animal nature. Implications for (de)humanization in intergroup relations are discussed.

Keywords:

• human nature
• human uniqueness
• ingroup humanization
• mortality salience

Notes

1. The authors declare to subscribe to the Open Materials Badge of the Open Science Framework. The full questionnaires can be found at the following link: osf.io/e9iaz

2. Data was collected across a set of four survey sessions. In one type of session this was the only survey, but in the others it was included in larger testing sessions with other surveys, which could potentially influence relationships. These potential effects were examined using analysis of variance. In one session type there were only two Australian participants, preventing valid comparisons of survey session effects, so they were excluded from further analyses. When checking for the impact of the three remaining session types, none of the reported findings were qualified by the type of survey session in which they were gathered (all ps > .26), indicating that the sessions where other surveys were included were not different from those where this survey was completed alone, warranting analysis as a single dataset.

3. The authors declare to subscribe to the Open Data Badge of the Open Science Framework. The full data file can be found at the following link: osf.io/s6p9v

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeroen Vaes

Jeroen Vaes was affiliated with the University of Padova, but is now an Associate Professor at the University of Trento, Italy.

Paul G. Bain

Paul G. Bain is a Research Fellow in the Humanities and Social Sciences and is affiliated with the University of Queensland, Australia.

Brock Bastian

Brock Bastian is an ARC Future Fellow and is affiliated at the University of New South Wales, Australia.