Configural Face Processing and Prejudice Regulation

非人性化--否认对他人的完全人性--是虐待他人的关键诱因。当其他人被非人性化时，他们经常受到攻击，经历歧视，其他人甚至对他们的痛苦视而不见。在目前的研究中，Kurt Hugenberg（迈阿密大学）和他的同事将研究可能导致他人非人化的面部信号。过去的研究表明，人类的面孔通常是结构化的。 也就是说，不是单独检查面部的特定特征（眼睛，鼻子），而是将面部的特征自发地“分组在一起”并作为一个整体进行处理。这项工作将调查是否未能执行这一面部神经处理可能会触发去人性化。这项研究将1）弥合感知和社会心理学之间的界限，2）扩大我们对非人性化背后的感知机制的有限理解，3）回答有关非人性化的前因和影响以及面孔加工的可塑性的深层问题。非人化在群体间冲突、不公正和歧视中起着关键作用。理解人性判断的潜在机制是解决去人性化的原因和后果的必要下一步。拟议的研究将在3条研究线的10个实验中探索归因人性和自然面孔加工之间的关系。第一条工作线可能提供新的证据，证明面部表情处理是人类的一个线索，通过配置处理的面部使人类的面部看起来更像人类，并且面部表情处理的中断可能会引发去人性化。第二，利用行为和神经科学（ERP）技术，这项工作将探讨是否增加归因的人性可以增加的程度，神经的面孔加工。第三，本研究将寻求将有关面部表情加工和去人性化的发现扩展到偏见调节领域。尽管偏见的激活可以简单地从种族典型的面部特征中发生，但控制偏见的动机可以通过体验一张完全人性化的脸来触发。因此，这第三条工作线将证明偏见激活和偏见调节是分离的，这样前者可以单独由种族典型特征触发，而后者则通过图形处理。这一知识可能导致制定新的战略，以有效地减少偏见和歧视。

Dehumanization - the denial of full humanness to others - is a key trigger for mistreating other people. When others are dehumanized, they are often subjected to aggression, experience discrimination, and others even become blind to their pain. In the current research, Kurt Hugenberg (Miami University) and colleagues will examine the facial signals that can lead to dehumanization of others. Past research has shown that human faces are normally processed configurally. That is, rather than examining specific features (the eyes, the nose) of the face separately, the features of a face are spontaneously "grouped together" and processed as a whole. This work will investigate whether a failure to perform this configural processing for a face may trigger dehumanization. This proposed research will 1) bridge the boundary between perceptual and social psychology, 2) expand our limited understanding of the perceptual mechanisms underlying dehumanization, and 3) answer deep questions about both the antecedents and effects of dehumanization and the malleability of face processing. Dehumanization plays a key role in intergroup conflict, injustice, and discrimination. Understanding the mechanisms underlying judgments of humanness is a necessary next step to addressing the causes and consequences of dehumanization.The proposed studies will explore the relationships between ascribing humanity and configural face processing in 10 experiments across 3 lines of research. The first line of work may provide novel evidence that configural face processing is a cue for humanity, with configurally processed faces making human faces seem more human, and that disruptions of configural processing may trigger dehumanization. Second, using both behavioral and neuroscience (ERP) techniques, this work will investigate whether increasing ascriptions of humanity can increase the extent of configural face processing. Third, the current research will seek to extend the findings regarding configural face processing and dehumanization to the domain of prejudice regulation. Whereas the activation of prejudice can occur simply from race-typical facial features, the motivation to control prejudice could be triggered by experiencing a face as fully human. Thus, this third line of work will demonstrate that prejudice activation and prejudice regulation are dissociable, such that the former can be triggered by race-typical features alone, and the latter via configural processing. This knowledge could lead to the development of novel strategies to effectively reduce prejudice and discrimination.