Dehumanisation Effects in Media Portrayals of Refugees & Asylum Seekers - A longitudinal CDA study of media discourses, neuropsychological substrates

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Broadly speaking, dehumanisation relates to the perception of members of a certain social groupas less than human - e.g. as closer to animals, objects or automatons (Lee & Harris, 2013). Thisphenomenon plays a key role in intergroup conflict, as it hinders the development of prosocialbehaviour and enlarges the perceived gap between members of ingroups and outgroups (note forexample, the sending out of hate letters to Polish immigrants calling them "vermin" in the aftermathof the EU Referendum).Among other things, dehumanisation is facilitated by the presence and perpetuation of negativestereotypes and prejudices; most commonly of socially vulnerable outgroups and minorities(Dovidio, 1986). Efforts at understanding these effects have traditionally stemmed from disciplinessuch as social psychology and neuroscience. Studies in these areas have probed thesociocognitive bases of dehumanising behaviours by examining a range of neural responses whichemerge during interaction with members of different human groups. By observing electricalpotentials at cortical level after a stimulus is presented (i.e. through ERPs measured usingElectroencephalography -see Luck, 2005) or the hemodynamic activation of different brain areas(using fMRI), close attention is paid to those neural responses which relate to the existence ofovergeneralised and/or negative attitudes and emotional associations related to factors such as,but not limited to, race (see e.g. Volpert et al., 2012 which examines the neural substrates ofbiased perceptions towards black people), or socioeconomic background (e.g. in Harris & Fiske,2007, which notes that brain areas processing disgust are differentially activated by images ofhomeless people and that engaging theory of mind contemplations mitigates this effect).In most instances, such studies offer a snapshot of dehumanising behaviours at a given moment intime, rather than accounting for the processes whereby they can evolve and change (with anotable exception in Harris & Fiske, 2007 -see Amodio, 2014 for a state-of-things review ofneuroscientific studies focusing on dehumanisation, bias and prejudice). By the same token,dehumanisation and prejudice have not yet been systematically studied in relation to linguistic anddiscursive practices, and to the role that the language of powerful institutions (such as mediaoutlets and political leaders) has on their appearance in the public social imaginary.