Infra-humanizing others, supra-humanizing gods: The emotional hierarchy

Previous research has shown that people tend to infra-humanize outgroup members by being reluctant to attribute them secondary, uniquely human, emotions (Demoulin et al., 2004; Leyens et al., 2000). In the present paper, we extend the infra-humanization theory by arguing that people, going to the opposite pole of the humanness continuum, have also the tendency to supra-humanize some supernatural entities. Two exploratory studies focusing at the explicit perceptions of God and the self give support to these assumptions. The several consequences of gods' supra-humanization for social cognition are discussed.