Infrahumanization is characterized by being a relative process of comparison.

Infrahumanization includes studies that exclusively use emotions as a covert measure.

Review of the path that the study of infrahumanization has taken.

Review of motivations, consequences and strategies to reduce infrahumanization.

The Emotional Side of Prejudice: The Attribution of Secondary Emotions to Ingroups and Outgroups [1] not only represented the beginning of empirical research on infrahumanization but also contributed to a more microscopic understanding of the cognitive and emotional processes that contaminate everyday social interaction. Two decades later, publications on dehumanization in social psychology now number in the hundreds. However, the different models and ways of measuring dehumanization have possibly given rise to the false idea that any negative attitude toward other people or groups is an example of dehumanization. The main objective of this article is to review the path that the study of infrahumanization has taken by focusing on those studies that exclusively use primary and secondary emotions as a covert measure. In contrast to other theories of dehumanization, infrahumanization theory posits that this process is characterized by a tendency to secure the humanity of the ingroup rather than to denigrate outgroups. That is, it is a relative process of comparison: we are more human than they are.

© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.