Welcome to my blog!
I will be posting here about once a month, on topics ranging from connection with nature to compassion cultivation to dreamwork. The thread running through all of them is the question of how to live with depth and integrity in these turbulent times. Whenever possible, my blog posts will connect the material I cover in my online courses (Ecopsychology, Compassion, and Dreamwork) to current concerns that are arising in the culture. For this first post, I will be drawing on the compassion class to share some reflections on overcoming dehumanization through cultivating a sense of common humanity.
I've had the unique honor of being a secular compassion teacher to hundreds of students at my university. It has given me a window into what works well for people from a variety of backgrounds: my students are generally new to the material but very curious and open to new ideas. The last couple of decades has seen a growing dialogue between science and contemplative compassion practices, making some of the ideas and practices of contemplative traditions all the more accessible to 21st century students. Of all the compassion-focused topics I've covered, the one that is most universally resonant is that of "common humanity."[i]
What, exactly, is common humanity? It's a perspective in which we recognize the shared basics of human life: we all wish to be happy, and we all wish to be free from suffering. We all have joys and struggles, though the details vary widely.
A sense of common humanity can be directed inwards to cultivate self-compassion (more on that in a later blog), and directed outwards as a reminder that other people, whether close to us or distant, have longings, aspirations, and challenges just as we have. Common humanity practices often employ the phrase "just like me" as a reminder of this essential similarity.
Dehumanization, "perceiving or treating people as if they are less than fully human," (Haslam and Stratemeyer, 2016) is the opposite of this. While dehumanization can be blatant, obvious, and extreme (for instance, likening a group of people to apes), more often it is a subtle, everyday occurrence. For example, we dehumanize when we regard people as a means to an end, or as obstacles to our progress.
Princeton social psychologist Susan Fiske understands dehumanization through the lens of mind perception. As she explains, "Empathy for another's happiness and suffering depends fundamentally on recognizing that the other has a mind - that is, the same capacities for thought, emotion, desire, intention, and self-awareness as ourselves." (Fiske 2009, p. 31). The fact is, mind perception is a slippery thing. Imagine that you encounter a random person on the street. If someone were to ask you "does this person have a mind?" no doubt you would say yes, of course they do. But are you truly experiencing them in this way?
In order to explore the vagaries of mind perception, Fiske and neuroscientist Lasana Harris (Harris and Fiske, 2006) used a novel approach. They drew on brain imaging studies which established a link between mind perception and activation in a particular area of the brain: the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). When we encounter a person in such a way that centers our awareness of their mind, the mPFC becomes more active, making it a proxy for mind perception. In other words, when we are perceiving someone as having a mind, the mPFC becomes active. When we are not perceiving their mind, it does not.
So, back to the question of the random person on the street. While we may abstractly acknowledge that they have a mind, are we genuinely experiencing this? According to Fiske's research, it depends in part on who they are. While images of people typically evoke activation in the mPfc, when people in a social neuroimaging lab were shown photos of people in "outcast" groups such as drug addicts and people experiencing homelessness, their mPFCs failed to activate.
A disturbing finding, to be sure, but that wasn't the end of the story. In a follow-up study, Harris and Fiske (2007) gave people a simple task that required that they imagine the internal world of the otherwise dehumanized person: they were asked to infer that person's vegetable preferences. This seemingly inconsequential judgement worked a small miracle, engaging the mPFC, and presumably helping to overcome the tendency to dehumanize. Just like me, this homeless person enjoys carrots, this person who is addicted to drugs appreciates broccoli. It may sound trivial, but apparently it is not. Such a basic human universal as food is an easy first step for establishing common ground. From there we might imagine more personal commonalities: just like me, this person loves their dog; just like me, this person enjoys a warm spring breeze; just like me, this person delights in spending time with friends.
In addition to countering the dehumanization of people in stigmatized groups, the "just like me" approach can help us with the ever-increasing subtle dehumanization that happens in our everyday lives. It's no secret that the last few years have seen dramatically increased polarization in society. Whether focused on politics or religion, the pandemic or Palestine, our differences so easily harden into estrangement. Family members become adversaries, friendships crumble under the weight of mutual suspicion. Thoughtful conversation eludes us, cutting us off from the complexity that arises when we encounter differing perspectives with a willingness to listen. It's so easy to view others as being fully defined by their "positions." Isn't this also a form of dehumanization, as we lose sight of each other's complex inner lives?
What would happen if we saw ourselves, and others, as so much more than our opinions and beliefs? I passionately believe that we can be fully committed to our political work, our spiritual paths, and our values without ever needing to dehumanize anyone. In fact, acknowledging our common humanity across differences will lend these commitments greater substance, as our work will likely have a stronger foundation of understanding, and be more resonant, deep, and comprehensive. It will make our individual lives, and our communities, immeasurably warmer and more connected. It will also open the door to working together toward common goals where they exist. And if our differences are such that we need to withdraw from relationships for our own well-being, we can do so with respect and kindness.
As this is the beginning of a new year, I would like to end with an invitation: if it feels right to you, consider making an intention to refrain from dehumanization in any form, blatant or subtle. An intention is a little different from a resolution: it doesn't come saddled with guilt when we lapse. An intention is like an inner compass, pointing us in the direction we wish to go. You can practice common humanity when you encounter people from a stigmatized group, when you are in a long line at the grocery store (or a traffic jam!) and the people ahead of you feel like obstacles, when you tempted to disparage a friend or family member due to political differences. Just like me, this person encounters suffering in their life; just like me, this person has dreams, goals, longings; just like me, this person wishes to be happy.
References:
Fiske, S. T. (2009). From dehumanization and objectification to rehumanization: Neuroimaging studies on the building blocks of empathy. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1167(1), 31-34.
Harris, L. T., & Fiske, S. T. (2006). Dehumanizing the lowest of the low: Neuroimaging responses to extreme out-groups. Psychological science, 17(10), 847-853.
Harris, L. T., & Fiske, S. T. (2007). Social groups that elicit disgust are differentially processed in mPFC. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2(1), 45-51.
Haslam, N., & Stratemeyer, M. (2016). Recent research on dehumanization. Current Opinion in Psychology, 11, 25-29.
[i] A shout-out to Stanford University's Compassion Cultivation Training, which inspired many of the ideas related here. It was through my training as a certified facilitator in this program that I was first introduced to the research described in this blog, and to the "just like me" common humanity practice. For more information, see their website:
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