Naira Delgado, professor of Social Psychology at the University of La Laguna (ULL), warns that dehumanization, in a polarized social context of digital overexposure and hate speech, has become "a silent phenomenon" that permeates daily life.
"To dehumanize is to treat others as if they were not people," Delgado summarizes, warning that it can be conscious, such as calling unaccompanied migrant minors 'menas' to represent them as a threat; or unconscious, when referring to doctors and nurses as 'heroes' during the covid pandemic.
There is also another category of dehumanization, that of healthcare administration, which "transforms the patient into a number."
These are "subtle but very effective processes," since "they normalize contemptuous attitudes that end up eroding empathy," analyzes the expert in statements sent by the University of La Laguna.
Naira Delgado emphasizes that language plays a crucial role in this phenomenon, as "words not only communicate, but also shape the way we think about others."
"When we call a migrant minor a 'mena,' we stop thinking that he is a child with a history, with fear, with a family. We turn him into an abstract category, and that has very real consequences," she says.
That way of naming, repeated massively on networks and in the media, is permeating social perception, shaping public policies and collective attitudes, this researcher warns.
"Subtle" dehumanization
During the pandemic, this logic manifested "in a more subtle but equally damaging way."
The 'superhero' label applied to healthcare personnel was intended as a tribute, but ended up obscuring their humanity.
"A superhero doesn't need to sleep," Delgado quips, adding that "when strength is exalted without recognizing limits, the vulnerability of those who care is lost sight of."
The study of this phenomenon is part of the project 'Processes of interpersonal dehumanization: psychological and neurocognitive bases', developed by Delgado at the University of La Laguna.
Through this line of research, she analyzes how expectations of unlimited delivery or professional perfection can transform into subtle forms of dehumanization, especially in environments of high emotional pressure.
The researcher also observes how the digital environment has amplified this problem.
Anonymity, speed, and the absence of direct contact on social media favor verbal aggression and reduce the perception of the other as a person.
Recent studies in social neuroscience demonstrate that constant exposure to hate speech dulls the brain's empathic response, decreasing the ability to recognize the suffering of others, even within our own group.
A Tool for Collective Violence
Dehumanization, Delgado recalls, is not a new phenomenon. It is present in the most extreme forms of collective violence, from the Holocaust to colonial processes.
"In all documented genocides, we find the same pattern: first, the enemy group is differentiated as essentially distinct, then a discourse is intensified that describes it as less human. From there, violence is justified and executed without limits," he explains.
But beyond the great historical episodes, the psychologist insists that dehumanization permeates ordinary life, and that is "the disturbing" thing about it: many of its forms "pass below the threshold of consciousness: it happens in jokes, in labels, in the way we look at the other."
"The active effort to avoid looking at someone sleeping on the street or the silence in the face of a discriminatory comment disguised as humor are also forms of dehumanization," she analyzes.
Delgado emphasizes that this psychological mechanism, far from being an anomaly, is inscribed in our cognitive abilities.
"In the same way that we can humanize an object—talk to the car or think that an animal 'thinks like us'—we are also capable of removing human traits from an individual or a group. That operation, functional from a psychological point of view, allows us to justify acts or attitudes that would otherwise be intolerable to us," he explains.
The researcher distinguishes two main routes of dehumanization: animalization, when attributes considered exclusively human, such as rationality or culture, are denied; and mechanization, when the other is seen as a machine, without emotions or sensitivity.
Delgado believes that the first step to reversing this trend is to acknowledge it.
"We all dehumanize at some point, even without realizing it. The antidote is not guilt, but awareness," she argues.
It suggests recovering the word 'people' in everyday language, telling stories with names and biographies, and teaching how to look with empathy.