The cost of dehumanization

How political rhetoric shapes public resistance to cooperation with adversaries

Bibliographic Data

ID8911280
AuthorsFaten Ghosn (0000-0003-4734-0670, corresponding author), A Burcu Bayram (0000-0003-0538-9791)
Year2025
Volume61
Issue1
Pages3-31
Publication date2025-02-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCooperation and Conflict (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-8367 • E-ISSN: 1460-3691
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00108367251314806
OpenAlexW4407265072
LanguageEN
References cited84

Policymakers evoke dehumanizing images when talking about their country’s traditional adversaries. Despite tough rhetoric, when national security interests are at stake, politicians do change their discourse and are willing to engage in pragmatic strategic cooperation with adversaries. To date, no study has analyzed how politicians’ use of dehumanizing images affects the public’s preferences for strategic security cooperation. We argue that politicians’ use of dehumanizing images of enemies in public discourse creates a psychological barrier to strategic thinking in security policy at the public level, and this barrier is greater when they are used by Republican politicians. Using data from a survey experiment of a nationally representative sample of Americans, we show that once politicians have used dehumanizing images to describe an adversary, the American people are more likely to oppose cooperating with that country. We also show that enemy images invoked by Republicans are stickier than those used by Democrats

Adversary · Computer security · Dehumanization · National security · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Resistance (ecology · Rhetoric · Sociology · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social and Intergroup Psychology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access