Date:

Friday 28 March 2008

Time:

4.00pm – approximately 5.00pm (light refreshments will follow)

Location:

Padua Lecture Theatre (Room MT103), JCU Douglas Campus, Angus Smith Drive, TOWNSVILLE

Video conferenced to: Room A21.002, JCU Cairns Campus, McGregor Road, Smithfield, CAIRNS

Summary:

This talk will present a program of social psychological research on humanness and dehumanisation. This work investigates the ways in which laypeople understand what it is to be human, and the processes by which humanness is denied to others relative to the self and the groups to which it belongs.

A key argument is that two main understandings of humanness circulate in our culture – human uniqueness and human nature – and two corresponding forms of dehumanisation occur when they are denied to others. When people are denied human uniqueness they are metaphorically likened to animals, and when they are denied human nature they are likened to objects or automata.

Professor Haslam will present a series of empirical studies in which people ascribe lesser humanness to a variety of social groups (Indigenous people, Asians, refugees), metaphorically associate these groups with bestial or mechanical nonhumans, attribute greater humanness to themselves than to the average person, and use their humanness as mitigation for personal failings.

Speaker:

Associate Professor Nick Haslam

School of Behavioural Sciences

University of Melbourne

Presented by:

Faculty of Arts, Education and Social Sciences

Contact:

Everyone welcome. For further information and to RSVP for catering purposes, please contact Michelle McClure, Tel: (07) 4781 5164 or E-mail: michelle.mcclure@jcu.edu.au