Motivation to support a desired conclusion versus motivation to avoid an undesirable conclusion:: The case of infra-humanization

Social motivation has been shown to influence various cognitive processes. In the present paper, it is verified that people are motivated to view out-groups as possessing a lesser degree of humanity than the in-group (Leyens et al., 2000) and that this motivation influences logical processing in the Wason selection task. So far, studies on infra-humanization have been shown to influence attribution of uniquely human characteristics to groups. Most of these studies focused on the attribution of secondary emotions. Results have shown that secondary emotions are preferentially attributed to in-group members (Leyens et al., 2001). Also, people tend to react differently to in-group and out-group members displaying secondary emotions (Gaunt, Leyens, & Sindic, 2004; Vaes.. Paladino, Castelli, Leyens, & Giovanazzi, 2003). In the present paper, it is argued that infra-humanization is a two-direction bias and that it does influence logical processing among perceivers. Specifically, infra-humanization motivation impacts logical processing in two different directions. First, most motivation is spent to reach the desirable conclusion that the in-group is uniquely human. Second, least motivation occurs to support the undesirable conclusion that the out-group is uniquely human. These hypotheses are tested in four cross-cultural studies that varied the status and the conflicting relations between groups. Results were in line with the predictions and further confirmed that infra-humanization biases can be obtained independently of status and conflict (but see Cortes, Demoulin, Leyens, & de Renesse, 2005). The discussion relates these findings with in-group favouritism and out-group derogation (Brewer, 1999) and underlines the importance of infra-humanization in counteracting system justification biases (Jost & Banaji, 1994).