TY - JOUR
T1 - Super-Human or Sub-Human?: Positive Dehumanization and Gender in Public Performance Evaluations
AU - Utych, Stephen M.
AU - Fowler, Luke
PY - 2022/10/1
Y1 - 2022/10/1
N2 - Dehumanizing language, language that compares human beings to animals or machines, is typically thought of in problematic cases, where it is designed to denigrate individuals or entire groups in society. But, this language can also be used to praise—describing an employee as a machine can be done to signify super-human characteristics. We find that positive dehumanizing language has no effect on evaluations of a public employee’s competence, but do have an effect on evaluations of warmth. Contrary to expectations, we find no differences in these effects based on the gender of the employee.
AB - Dehumanizing language, language that compares human beings to animals or machines, is typically thought of in problematic cases, where it is designed to denigrate individuals or entire groups in society. But, this language can also be used to praise—describing an employee as a machine can be done to signify super-human characteristics. We find that positive dehumanizing language has no effect on evaluations of a public employee’s competence, but do have an effect on evaluations of warmth. Contrary to expectations, we find no differences in these effects based on the gender of the employee.
KW - dehumanization
KW - gender
KW - performance evaluations
KW - trait evaluations
UR - https://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/polsci_facpubs/245
UR - https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997211069047
M3 - Article
JO - Administration & Society
JF - Administration & Society
ER -