Introduction to the Special Issue: Interdisciplinary Insights to More Fully Grasp Dehumanization

To more fully grasp dehumanization, this special issue situates its psychological study within a larger interdisciplinary context. We have drawn papers, not only from social and developmental psychology, but also from theoretical and experimental philosophy, political science, and sociology. Some of this work continues to consider important questions, longstanding in the psychological study of dehumanization, about how to best capture individuals’ dehumanizing perceptions. However, expanding our disciplinary scope also illuminates new questions for the field about how to stay in touch with dehumanization’s real-world manifestations. This highlights a tension between precision and realism that boils down to a more basic question: how broad should the study of dehumanization be?