Lasana T Harris
Biographic Data
| ID | 1751584 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lasana T Harris |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lasana T |
| FAMILY NAME | Harris |
| SIGNATURE | HARRIS L T |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8503-3201 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 9 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
A question of perspective: Target- vs. perceiver-specific dimensions of mind perception
Mind perception - the inference of mind in others - is foundational for social cognition and interaction, but previous research on its underlying dimensions has so far only produced mixed findings. In a prominent study, H.M. Gray et al. (2007) identified two dimensions of mind perception - Agency and Experience -, while more recent work instead suggests three dimensions similar to Body, Heart, and Mind (Malle, 2019; Weisman et al., 2017). Here, w…
The mental state inferences in healthcare professionals scale: A psychometric study
The MSIHPS offers the opportunity to explore the role of mentalizing in a diversity of healthcare settings. This measure can be useful to explore the relationship between healthcare professionals' disposition to infer patients' mental states and other relevant variables in clinical interactions, such as empathy and clinical performance
Cognitive causes of 'like me' race and gender biases in human language production
Natural language contains and communicates social biases, often reflecting attitudes, prejudices and stereotypes. Here we provide evidence for a novel psychological pathway for the expression of such biases, in which they arise as a consequence of the automatized mechanisms by which humans retrieve words to produce sentences. Four experiments show that, when describing events, speakers tend to mention people who are more like them first and, thus…
Decolonising higher education: Black and Minority Ethnic students’ experiences at an elite British university
Recent movements to decolonise the university have challenged the ideological and political position of authority, reflecting the power relations between different societal groups. Framed by postcolonial and decolonial perspectives, this paper attempts to represent the experiences, values and viewpoints of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students at an elite British university who speak for themselves about their lived realities at the institutio…
Dangerous Speech: A Cross-Cultural Study of Dehumanization and Revenge
Dehumanization is routinely invoked in social science and law as the primary factor in explaining how propaganda encourages support for, or participation in, violence against targeted outgroups. Yet the primacy of dehumanization is increasingly challenged by the apparent influence of revenge on collective violence. This study examines critically how various propaganda influence audiences. Although previous research stresses the dangers of dehuman…
Humanity at first sight: Exploring the relationship between others' pupil size and ascriptions of humanity
Social targets' eyes are a rich source of information: partners with dilated and constricted pupils are perceived positively and negatively, respectively. Here, we tested whether observed pupil size influences the ascription of humanity. In Study 1 (n = 198) participants were asked to attribute positive uniquely human and non-uniquely human traits to ingroup (i.e., university students), derogated (i.e., homeless people) and non-derogated (i.e., D…
Mortality Awareness: New Directions
Thinking about our own death and its salience in relation to decision making has become a fruitful area of multidisciplinary research across the breadth of psychological science. By bringing together experts from philosophy, cognitive and affective neuroscience, clinical and computational psychiatry we have attempted to set out the current state of the art and point to areas of further enquiry. One stimulus for doing this is the need to engage wi…
The humanity inventory: Developing and validating an individual difference measure of dehumanization propensity
Dehumanization is often explored in the context of inhumane acts of intergroup and interpersonal violence, and is considered a precursor to extreme atrocities. However, research suggests that we may all engage dehumanized perceptions, at least occasionally, if the social context or goals encourage dehumanization. This implies an individual difference nature of dehumanization propensity. Across four online studies (cross-sectional Studies 1, 3, 4,…
Socioeconomic Status and Dehumanization in India: Elaboration of the Stereotype Content Model in a Non-Weird Sample
A perceiver’s socioeconomic status (SES) should influence social perceptions toward others. However, there is little evidence for this effect within and beyond Western samples. We hence evaluate the relationship between perceiver SES and dehumanized perception in a society where status is historically defined: India. Across two studies, we hypothesized that perceiver SES would predict dehumanization toward societal outcasts—beggars—and norm viola…
The morality of organization versus organized members: Organizations are attributed more control and responsibility for negative outcomes than are equivalent members
Seven experiments demonstrate that framing an organizational entity (the target) as an organization ("an organization comprised of its constituent members") versus its members ("constituent members comprising an organization") increases attribution of responsibility to the target following a negative outcome, despite identical information conveyed. Specifically, the target in the organization (vs. members) frame was perceived to have more control…
Constructing emotion categorization: Insights from developmental psychology applied to a young adult sample
Previous research has found that the categorization of emotional facial expressions is influenced by a variety of factors, such as processing time, facial mimicry, emotion labels, and perceptual cues. However, past research has frequently confounded these factors, making it impossible to ascertain how adults use this varied information to categorize emotions. The current study is the first to explore the magnitude of impact for each of these fact…
Developmental changes in infants’ categorization of anger and disgust facial expressions
For decades, scholars have examined how children first recognize emotional facial expressions. This research has found that infants younger than 10 months can discriminate negative, within-valence facial expressions in looking time tasks, and children older than 24 months struggle to categorize these expressions in labeling and free-sort tasks. Specifically, these older children, and even adults, consistently misidentify disgust expressions as an…
The Emotional Cost of Humanity: Anticipated Exhaustion Motivates Dehumanization of Stigmatized Targets
Although mind perception is a basic part of social interaction, people often dehumanize others by denying them mental states. Many theories suggest that dehumanization happens in order to facilitate aggression or account for past immorality. We suggest a novel motivation for dehumanization: to avoid affective costs. We show that dehumanization of stigmatized targets (e.g., drug addicts) relative to nonstigmatized targets is strongest for those wh…
Stereotype Content
Scholars have recently proposed a model that describes and systematically categorizes the content of stereotypes. This stereotype content model posits that groups are stereotyped along the dimensions of trait warmth (i.e., likeability and friendliness) and competence (Fiske, Xu, Cuddy, & Glick, 1999). Groups will typically be stereotyped into one of four clusters—low warmth and high competence, high warmth and low competence, high warmth and high…
Exploring the Generalization Process from Past Behavior to Predicting Future Behavior
Substantial evidence in social psychology documents that traits predict behavior. Research in behavioral economics establishes prior behavioral information—the actual behavior of another person in the past—influences future decision making, suggestive of the role of traits in guiding future behavior, but agnostic to the specific psychological mechanism. Yet the entire generalization process from past behavior to predicting future behavior has not…
Durable effects of cognitive restructuring on conditioned fear
Studies of cognitive reappraisal have demonstrated that reinterpreting a stimulus can alter emotional responding, yet few studies have examined the durable effects associated with reinterpretation-based emotion regulation strategies. Evidence for the enduring effects of emotion regulation may be found in clinical studies that use cognitive restructuring (CR) techniques in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to alleviate anxiety. These techniques a…
Social neuroscience evidence for dehumanised perception
Dehumanisation describes perceiving a person as nonhuman in some ways, such as lacking a mind. Social psychology is beginning to understand cognitive and affective causes and mechanisms—the psychological how and why of dehumanisation. Social neuroscience research also can inform these questions. After background on social neural networks and on past dehumanisation research, the article contrasts (a) research on fully humanised person perception, …
Dehumanizing the Lowest of the Low: Neuroimaging Responses to Extreme Out-Groups
Traditionally, prejudice has been conceptualized as simple animosity. The stereotype content model (SCM) shows that some prejudice is worse. The SCM previously demonstrated separate stereotype dimensions of warmth (low-high) and competence (low-high), identifying four distinct out-group clusters. The SCM predicts that only extreme out-groups, groups that are both stereotypically hostile and stereotypically incompetent (low warmth, low competence)…
Why Ordinary People Torture Enemy Prisoners
Science success, narrative theories of personality, and race self complexity: Is pace represented in the identity construction of African American adolescents
Narrative theories of personality help elucidate the complexity of success
Developmental changes in infants’ categorization of anger and disgust facial expressions
For decades, scholars have examined how children first recognize emotional facial expressions. This research has found that infants younger than 10 months can discriminate negative, within-valence facial expressions in looking time tasks, and children older than 24 months struggle to categorize these expressions in labeling and free-sort tasks. Specifically, these older children, and even adults, consistently misidentify disgust expressions as an…
The morality of organization versus organized members: Organizations are attributed more control and responsibility for negative outcomes than are equivalent members
Seven experiments demonstrate that framing an organizational entity (the target) as an organization ("an organization comprised of its constituent members") versus its members ("constituent members comprising an organization") increases attribution of responsibility to the target following a negative outcome, despite identical information conveyed. Specifically, the target in the organization (vs. members) frame was perceived to have more control…
Dangerous Speech: A Cross-Cultural Study of Dehumanization and Revenge
Dehumanization is routinely invoked in social science and law as the primary factor in explaining how propaganda encourages support for, or participation in, violence against targeted outgroups. Yet the primacy of dehumanization is increasingly challenged by the apparent influence of revenge on collective violence. This study examines critically how various propaganda influence audiences. Although previous research stresses the dangers of dehuman…
Humanity at first sight: Exploring the relationship between others' pupil size and ascriptions of humanity
Social targets' eyes are a rich source of information: partners with dilated and constricted pupils are perceived positively and negatively, respectively. Here, we tested whether observed pupil size influences the ascription of humanity. In Study 1 (n = 198) participants were asked to attribute positive uniquely human and non-uniquely human traits to ingroup (i.e., university students), derogated (i.e., homeless people) and non-derogated (i.e., D…
Why Ordinary People Torture Enemy Prisoners
Science success, narrative theories of personality, and race self complexity: Is pace represented in the identity construction of African American adolescents
Narrative theories of personality help elucidate the complexity of success
Dehumanizing the Lowest of the Low: Neuroimaging Responses to Extreme Out-Groups
Traditionally, prejudice has been conceptualized as simple animosity. The stereotype content model (SCM) shows that some prejudice is worse. The SCM previously demonstrated separate stereotype dimensions of warmth (low-high) and competence (low-high), identifying four distinct out-group clusters. The SCM predicts that only extreme out-groups, groups that are both stereotypically hostile and stereotypically incompetent (low warmth, low competence)…
Social neuroscience evidence for dehumanised perception
Dehumanisation describes perceiving a person as nonhuman in some ways, such as lacking a mind. Social psychology is beginning to understand cognitive and affective causes and mechanisms—the psychological how and why of dehumanisation. Social neuroscience research also can inform these questions. After background on social neural networks and on past dehumanisation research, the article contrasts (a) research on fully humanised person perception, …
Durable effects of cognitive restructuring on conditioned fear
Studies of cognitive reappraisal have demonstrated that reinterpreting a stimulus can alter emotional responding, yet few studies have examined the durable effects associated with reinterpretation-based emotion regulation strategies. Evidence for the enduring effects of emotion regulation may be found in clinical studies that use cognitive restructuring (CR) techniques in cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to alleviate anxiety. These techniques a…
Stereotype Content
Scholars have recently proposed a model that describes and systematically categorizes the content of stereotypes. This stereotype content model posits that groups are stereotyped along the dimensions of trait warmth (i.e., likeability and friendliness) and competence (Fiske, Xu, Cuddy, & Glick, 1999). Groups will typically be stereotyped into one of four clusters—low warmth and high competence, high warmth and low competence, high warmth and high…
Exploring the Generalization Process from Past Behavior to Predicting Future Behavior
Substantial evidence in social psychology documents that traits predict behavior. Research in behavioral economics establishes prior behavioral information—the actual behavior of another person in the past—influences future decision making, suggestive of the role of traits in guiding future behavior, but agnostic to the specific psychological mechanism. Yet the entire generalization process from past behavior to predicting future behavior has not…
The Emotional Cost of Humanity: Anticipated Exhaustion Motivates Dehumanization of Stigmatized Targets
Although mind perception is a basic part of social interaction, people often dehumanize others by denying them mental states. Many theories suggest that dehumanization happens in order to facilitate aggression or account for past immorality. We suggest a novel motivation for dehumanization: to avoid affective costs. We show that dehumanization of stigmatized targets (e.g., drug addicts) relative to nonstigmatized targets is strongest for those wh…
Constructing emotion categorization: Insights from developmental psychology applied to a young adult sample
Previous research has found that the categorization of emotional facial expressions is influenced by a variety of factors, such as processing time, facial mimicry, emotion labels, and perceptual cues. However, past research has frequently confounded these factors, making it impossible to ascertain how adults use this varied information to categorize emotions. The current study is the first to explore the magnitude of impact for each of these fact…
Developmental changes in infants’ categorization of anger and disgust facial expressions
For decades, scholars have examined how children first recognize emotional facial expressions. This research has found that infants younger than 10 months can discriminate negative, within-valence facial expressions in looking time tasks, and children older than 24 months struggle to categorize these expressions in labeling and free-sort tasks. Specifically, these older children, and even adults, consistently misidentify disgust expressions as an…
The morality of organization versus organized members: Organizations are attributed more control and responsibility for negative outcomes than are equivalent members
Seven experiments demonstrate that framing an organizational entity (the target) as an organization ("an organization comprised of its constituent members") versus its members ("constituent members comprising an organization") increases attribution of responsibility to the target following a negative outcome, despite identical information conveyed. Specifically, the target in the organization (vs. members) frame was perceived to have more control…
The humanity inventory: Developing and validating an individual difference measure of dehumanization propensity
Dehumanization is often explored in the context of inhumane acts of intergroup and interpersonal violence, and is considered a precursor to extreme atrocities. However, research suggests that we may all engage dehumanized perceptions, at least occasionally, if the social context or goals encourage dehumanization. This implies an individual difference nature of dehumanization propensity. Across four online studies (cross-sectional Studies 1, 3, 4,…
Socioeconomic Status and Dehumanization in India: Elaboration of the Stereotype Content Model in a Non-Weird Sample
A perceiver’s socioeconomic status (SES) should influence social perceptions toward others. However, there is little evidence for this effect within and beyond Western samples. We hence evaluate the relationship between perceiver SES and dehumanized perception in a society where status is historically defined: India. Across two studies, we hypothesized that perceiver SES would predict dehumanization toward societal outcasts—beggars—and norm viola…
Mortality Awareness: New Directions
Thinking about our own death and its salience in relation to decision making has become a fruitful area of multidisciplinary research across the breadth of psychological science. By bringing together experts from philosophy, cognitive and affective neuroscience, clinical and computational psychiatry we have attempted to set out the current state of the art and point to areas of further enquiry. One stimulus for doing this is the need to engage wi…
Decolonising higher education: Black and Minority Ethnic students’ experiences at an elite British university
Recent movements to decolonise the university have challenged the ideological and political position of authority, reflecting the power relations between different societal groups. Framed by postcolonial and decolonial perspectives, this paper attempts to represent the experiences, values and viewpoints of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students at an elite British university who speak for themselves about their lived realities at the institutio…
Dangerous Speech: A Cross-Cultural Study of Dehumanization and Revenge
Dehumanization is routinely invoked in social science and law as the primary factor in explaining how propaganda encourages support for, or participation in, violence against targeted outgroups. Yet the primacy of dehumanization is increasingly challenged by the apparent influence of revenge on collective violence. This study examines critically how various propaganda influence audiences. Although previous research stresses the dangers of dehuman…
Humanity at first sight: Exploring the relationship between others' pupil size and ascriptions of humanity
Social targets' eyes are a rich source of information: partners with dilated and constricted pupils are perceived positively and negatively, respectively. Here, we tested whether observed pupil size influences the ascription of humanity. In Study 1 (n = 198) participants were asked to attribute positive uniquely human and non-uniquely human traits to ingroup (i.e., university students), derogated (i.e., homeless people) and non-derogated (i.e., D…
The mental state inferences in healthcare professionals scale: A psychometric study
The MSIHPS offers the opportunity to explore the role of mentalizing in a diversity of healthcare settings. This measure can be useful to explore the relationship between healthcare professionals' disposition to infer patients' mental states and other relevant variables in clinical interactions, such as empathy and clinical performance
Cognitive causes of 'like me' race and gender biases in human language production
Natural language contains and communicates social biases, often reflecting attitudes, prejudices and stereotypes. Here we provide evidence for a novel psychological pathway for the expression of such biases, in which they arise as a consequence of the automatized mechanisms by which humans retrieve words to produce sentences. Four experiments show that, when describing events, speakers tend to mention people who are more like them first and, thus…
A question of perspective: Target- vs. perceiver-specific dimensions of mind perception
Mind perception - the inference of mind in others - is foundational for social cognition and interaction, but previous research on its underlying dimensions has so far only produced mixed findings. In a prominent study, H.M. Gray et al. (2007) identified two dimensions of mind perception - Agency and Experience -, while more recent work instead suggests three dimensions similar to Body, Heart, and Mind (Malle, 2019; Weisman et al., 2017). Here, w…
Psychology (18 works) · Social Psychology (16 works) · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment (9 works) · Cognitive psychology (8 works) · Developmental psychology (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Cognition (7 works) · Dehumanization (7 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (6 works)