Editing Dehumanization (section)

== History ==
{{Expand section|Surely this isn't the only example of dehumanization in history|date=March 2023}}
The term dehumanization first appeared in English in the early 19th century, initially referring to changes in physical appearance, but it soon broadened to describe forms of social and moral degradation.<ref name=":023">{{Cite book |title=The Routledge handbook of dehumanization |date=2021 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-58815-8 |editor-last=Kronfeldner |editor-first=Maria E. |series=Routledge handbooks in philosophy |location=Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY}}</ref> While the term itself is modern, critiques of practices that would now be recognized as dehumanizing, such as slavery, can be traced back to [[classical antiquity]]. In ancient Greece, for instance, [[Aristotle|Aristotle’s]] defense of natural slavery responded to contemporary philosophical debates about the moral status of slaves.<ref name=":52">Siep Stuurman, “Dehumanization Before The Columbian Exchange.” In ''The Routledge Handbook of Dehumanization'', 1st ed., 1:39–51. Routledge, 2021. doi:10.4324/9780429492464-chapter2.</ref> His arguments were later invoked to justify the dehumanization of Native Americans during the Spanish conquest and colonization.<ref name=":52" />

The idea of universal human worth gradually gained prominence through what scholars call the ''invention of humanity'', a historical process that gained momentum during the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] and promoted the belief in a shared human essence.<ref name=":023" /> However, as awareness of common humanity grew, so too did the ideological efforts to exclude certain groups from its scope, often through [[Scientific racism|pseudo-scientific racial theories]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Renato G. |first=Mazzolini |title=Colonialism and the Emergence of Racial Theories |date=2018 |work=Reproduction: Antiquity to the Present Day |pages=361–374 |editor-last=Kassell |editor-first=Lauren |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/reproduction/colonialism-and-the-emergence-of-racial-theories/122DB95AC72DCB6CCDF6C7E034EFEC72 |access-date=2025-05-15 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781107705647.032 |isbn=978-1-107-06802-5 |editor2-last=Hopwood |editor2-first=Nick |editor3-last=Flemming |editor3-first=Rebecca}}</ref> Dehumanization became a powerful tool during the age of colonialism, enabling imperial powers to justify the colonization, enslavement, and extermination of subjugated peoples.<ref name=":32">{{Cite journal |last1=Bruneau |first1=Emile |last2=Nour |first2=Kteily |date=2017-01-01 |title=The enemy as animal: Symmetric dehumanization during asymmetric warfare. |url=https://doaj.org/article/12402d4ab66240a8a6c50c403cf0b8bf |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=12 |issue=7 |pages=e0181422 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0181422 |doi-access=free |pmid=28746412 |pmc=5528981 |bibcode=2017PLoSO..1281422B |issn=1932-6203}}</ref>

Throughout history, societies have engaged in and institutionalized this denial of humanity to enable mass oppression, exploitation, and killing.<ref>Luigi Corrias, “Dehumanization by Law 1.” In ''The Routledge Handbook of Dehumanization'', 1st ed., 1:201–13. Routledge, 2021. doi:10.4324/9780429492464-chapter13.</ref> By portraying colonized groups as less than fully human, dominant groups were able to morally disengage from the suffering they inflicted, facilitating acts of exploitation, violence, and oppression.<ref name=":42">{{Cite journal |last1=Emile |first1=Bruneau |last2=Kteily |first2=Nour |date=2017-07-26 |title=The enemy as animal: Symmetric dehumanization during asymmetric warfare |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=12 |issue=7 |pages=e0181422 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0181422 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=5528981 |pmid=28746412|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1281422B }}</ref> [[David Livingstone Smith]], director and founder of The Human Nature Project at the [[University of New England (United States)|University of New England]], argues that historically, human beings have been dehumanizing one another for thousands of years.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Livingstone Smith |first=David |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312532727 |title=Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others |publisher=St. Martin's Press |year=2011 |isbn=9780312532727 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312532727/page/n343 336] |url-access=registration}}</ref> In his work "The Paradoxes of Dehumanization", Smith proposes that dehumanization simultaneously regards people as human and subhuman. This paradox comes to light, as Smith identifies, because the reason people are dehumanized is so their human attributes can be taken advantage of.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=David Livingstone |last2=Department of Philosophy, Florida State University |date=2016 |title=Paradoxes of Dehumanization |url=http://www.pdcnet.org/oom/service?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=&rft.imuse_id=soctheorpract_2016_0042_0002_0416_0443&svc_id=info:www.pdcnet.org/collection |url-status=live |journal=Social Theory and Practice |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=416–443 |doi=10.5840/soctheorpract201642222 |issn=0037-802X |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200910172535/https://www.pdcnet.org/soctheorpract/content/soctheorpract_2016_0042_0002_0416_0443 |archive-date=2020-09-10 |access-date=2020-09-10}}</ref>

Modern scholarly interest in dehumanization intensified after World War II, especially in response to [[the Holocaust]], with influential contributions from thinkers such as [[Hannah Arendt]].<ref name=":023" /> During the Cold War and especially the [[Vietnam War]], the concept became central to interdisciplinary research, spanning psychology, sociology, philosophy, genocide studies, and conflict analysis, as an important mechanism underlying social exclusion, violence, and moral disengagement.<ref name=":023" />

=== Transatlantic slave trade ===
Dehumanization played a central role in justifying and sustaining the [[Atlantic slave trade|transatlantic slave trade]].<ref name=":62">Luigi Corrias, “Dehumanization by Law 1.” In ''The Routledge Handbook of Dehumanization'', 1st ed., 1:201–13. Routledge, 2021. doi:10.4324/9780429492464-chapter13.</ref> Africans were portrayed as biologically suited for enslavement and were denied the qualities considered essential to full humanity.<ref>Maria Rosário Pimentel,  “The Justification of Slavery in Modern Natural Law,” 33–51. CRC Press | Taylor & Francis, 2022. doi: 10.1201/9780429299070</ref> This logic was grounded in binary oppositions, especially the division between the “civilized” and the “savage”, in which enslaved peoples were depicted as ''savages'' lacking rationality, culture, and moral agency.<ref name=":53">Siep Stuurman, “Dehumanization Before The Columbian Exchange.” In ''The Routledge Handbook of Dehumanization'', 1st ed., 1:39–51. Routledge, 2021. doi:10.4324/9780429492464-chapter2.</ref> Such portrayals served to legitimize their exploitation and subjugation.<ref name=":53" /> These beliefs were later reinforced by ideologies that framed imperial powers as bearers of civilization to “less developed” peoples, a view often encapsulated in the phrase “[[The White Man's Burden|the White Man’s Burden]]”.<ref name=":43">{{Cite journal |last1=Emile |first1=Bruneau |last2=Kteily |first2=Nour |date=2017-07-26 |title=The enemy as animal: Symmetric dehumanization during asymmetric warfare |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=12 |issue=7 |pages=e0181422 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0181422 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=5528981 |pmid=28746412|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1281422B }}</ref>

===Native Americans===
[[File:Woundedknee1891.jpg|thumb|220px|Mass grave for the dead Lakota following the [[Wounded Knee massacre]]. Up to 300 Natives were killed, mostly old men, women, and children.<ref>{{cite web|title=Plains Humanities: Wounded Knee Massacre|url=http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.war.056|access-date=August 9, 2016}}</ref>]]
Native Americans were dehumanized as "merciless Indian [[Savage (pejorative term)|savages]]" in the [[United States Declaration of Independence]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Facebook labels declaration of independence as 'hate speech' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/05/facebook-declaration-of-independence-hate-speech |access-date=February 7, 2021 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> Following the [[Wounded Knee massacre]] in December 1890, author [[L. Frank Baum]] wrote:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.northern.edu/hastingw/baumedts.htm |title=L. Frank Baum's Editorials on the Sioux Nation |access-date=2007-12-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071209193251/http://www.northern.edu/hastingw/baumedts.htm |archive-date=December 9, 2007 }} Full text of both, with commentary by professor A. Waller Hastings</ref><blockquote>The ''Pioneer'' has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination [sic] of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands. Otherwise, we may expect future years to be as full of trouble with the redskins as those have been in the past. </blockquote>In [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]'s book on [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]], ''[[Why We Can't Wait]]'', he wrote:<ref name="kingnatspeech">{{cite web |last1=Rickert |first1=Levi |title=Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: Our Nation was Born in Genocide |url=https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-nation-born-genocide/ |website=Native News Online |access-date=January 9, 2021 |date=January 16, 2017 |archive-date=November 26, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126092832/https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/dr-martin-luther-king-jr-nation-born-genocide/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Reflection today: "Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrin...|url=https://nacc.yalecollege.yale.edu/reflection-today-our-nation-was-born-genocide-when-it-embraced-doctrin|access-date=June 3, 2020|agency=Yale University|archive-date=June 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603175817/https://nacc.yalecollege.yale.edu/reflection-today-our-nation-was-born-genocide-when-it-embraced-doctrin|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="kingcreek">{{cite web |last1=Bender |first1=Albert |title=Dr. King spoke out against the genocide of Native Americans |url=http://www.peoplesworld.org/article/dr-king-spoke-out-against-the-genocide-of-native-americans/ |website=People's World |access-date=November 25, 2018 |date=February 13, 2014}}</ref>

<blockquote>Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles over racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or to feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our [[folklore]] all exalt it.</blockquote>

King was an active supporter of the [[Red Power movement|Native American rights movement]], which he drew parallels with his own leadership of the [[civil rights movement]].<ref name="kingcreek"/> Both movements aimed to overturn dehumanizing attitudes held by members of the public at large against them.<ref>{{citation|last=Johansen|first=Bruce E.|title=Encyclopedia of the American Indian Movement|year=2013|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|isbn=978-1-4408-0318-5|at="Brando, Marlon" (pp. 60–63); "Littlefeather, Sacheen" (pp. 176–178)}}</ref>

=== Nazi Germany ===
Dehumanization reached one of its most extreme expressions under [[Nazi Germany]], where it was systematically employed to justify and implement the persecution and extermination of various groups, including [[Jews]], [[Romani people|Romani]] and [[Sinti]] people, people with disabilities, political dissidents, and [[LGBTQ people|LGBTQ+]] individuals.<ref name=":45">{{Cite journal |last1=Emile |first1=Bruneau |last2=Kteily |first2=Nour |date=2017-07-26 |title=The enemy as animal: Symmetric dehumanization during asymmetric warfare |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=12 |issue=7 |pages=e0181422 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0181422 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=5528981 |pmid=28746412|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1281422B }}</ref>  [[The Holocaust]] is regarded as one of the most systematic and historically significant examples of atrocities carried out through sustained processes of dehumanization.<ref name=":0233">{{Cite book |title=The Routledge handbook of dehumanization |date=2021 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-138-58815-8 |editor-last=Kronfeldner |editor-first=Maria E. |series=Routledge handbooks in philosophy |location=Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY}}</ref>

Nazi Germany institutionalized dehumanization through the construction of legal and bureaucratic structures that explicitly denied the full humanity of targeted populations.<ref name=":0233" /> Legal frameworks played a central role in this process, with laws such as the [[Nuremberg Laws]], codifying discriminatory categories and racial hierarchies that legitimized exclusion, persecution, and ultimately extermination.<ref name=":64">Luigi Corrias, “Dehumanization by Law 1.” In ''The Routledge Handbook of Dehumanization'', 1st ed., 1:201–13. Routledge, 2021. doi:10.4324/9780429492464-chapter13.</ref> The Nazi regime also employed mass media and [[Propaganda in Nazi Germany|state propaganda]] to disseminate dehumanizing imagery and rhetoric that depicted these groups as subhuman threats to the German nation.<ref name=":73">Robert Wilson, “Dehumanization, Disability, and Eugenics.” In ''The Routledge Handbook of Dehumanization'', 1st ed., 1:173–86. Routledge, 2021. doi:10.4324/9780429492464-chapter11.</ref>

Jews were frequently portrayed through animalistic metaphors, including comparisons to vermin, and framed as biologically impure threats to racial purity.<ref name=":73" /> The term [[Untermensch]] (subhuman) was used to deny Jews and others moral standing and membership to the human community.<ref name=":73" />  In an October 1943 speech, [[Heinrich Himmler]] framed the extermination of the Jewish people as a historical mission, specifically comparing the Jews to a bacillus, reinforcing the portrayal of Jews as a dangerous disease that needs to be eradicated.<ref>{{Cite web |title=From a Speech by Himmler Before Senior SS Officers in Poznan, October 4, 1943 |url=https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%204029.pdf |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20250117234148/https://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%204029.pdf |archive-date=2025-01-17 |access-date=2025-05-16 |website=www.yadvashem.org}}</ref> These dehumanizing narratives facilitated the systematic extermination of 6,000,000 Jews during the Holocaust at the hands of the nazis.<ref name=":73" /> In addition, a state-sponsored eugenics program, most notably through [[Aktion T4]], targeted individuals with disabilities or others deemed possessing a ‘’[[life unworthy of life]]’’.<ref name=":73" /> These individuals were deemed inferior and a threat to the purity of the [[Aryan race]], and were also systematically exterminated.<ref name=":73" />

===Israelis and Palestinians===
Dehumanization has been a persistent and influential factor in the [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict]], contributing to intergroup hostility and serving as a strong predictor of support for violence across both societies.<ref>Alexander Landry, Isaias Ghezae, Ramzi Abou-Ismail, Sarah Spooner, River J August, Charlotte Mair, Anya Ragnhildstveit, Wim Van den Noortgate, Michele J Gelfand, and Paul Seli. “The Uniquely Powerful Impact of Explicit, Blatant Dehumanization on Support for Intergroup Violence.” ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', 2025. doi:10.1037/pspi0000492.</ref> In protracted conflicts by high levels of insecurity and entrenched group identities, boundaries between in-groups and out-groups often become more rigid, which reinforces psychological separation and facilitates dehumanizing attitudes.<ref name=":82">{{Cite journal |last1=Jamie L. |first1=Goldenberg |last2=Courtney |first2=Emily P. |last3=Felig |first3=Roxanne N. |date=January 2021 |title=Supporting the Dehumanization Hypothesis, but Under What Conditions? A Commentary on Over (2021) |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32348710 |journal=Perspectives on Psychological Science: A Journal of the Association for Psychological Science |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=14–21 |doi=10.1177/1745691620917659 |issn=1745-6924 |pmid=32348710}}</ref> Dehumanization has been identified as a central mechanism in sustaining violence in protracted conflicts, which reinforces collective victimhood identities, legitimizes hostility and perpetuates cycles of violence and retaliation.<ref name=":9">Joana Ricarte, “Historical Memory, Cultural Violence, and Conflict: The Genealogy of Dehumanization in Israel and Palestine.” In ''Memory, Trauma and Narratives of the Self''. United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2024. doi:10.4337/9781035337972.00017.</ref>

Empirical research has found that both Palestinian and Jewish Israeli participants who expressed dehumanizing views of the other group were more likely to support retributive forms of justice and violent measures, as opposed to restorative or conciliatory approaches.<ref name="Haslam201424">{{cite journal |last1=Nick |first1=Haslam |last2=Steve |first2=Loughnan |date=3 January 2014 |title=Dehumanization and Infrahumanization |journal=Annual Review of Psychology |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=399–423 |doi=10.1146/annurev-psych-010213-115045 |pmid=23808915 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Historical examples of dehumanization in Israeli society include comparing Palestinians to the biblical “sons of [[Amalek]]”, a tribal group portrayed as inherently evil.<ref>Jay Martin, “The Vicissitudes of Empathy: Reflections on the Israel-Palestine Conflict.” ''Journal of Genocide Research'', 2025, 1–17. doi:10.1080/14623528.2025.2458400.</ref> Dehumanization contributes to the justification of exclusionary and violent policies, with studies linking dehumanizing attitudes to public support for measures such as population transfers amongst segments of the Israeli population.<ref name="Haslam201424" /> Dehumanizing narratives have also historically appeared in nationalist slogans, such as the early [[Zionism|Zionist]] phrase "[[a land without a people for a people without a land]]", which is interpreted as a symbolic erasure of Palestinian peoplehood.<ref name=":33">{{Cite journal |last1=Bruneau |first1=Emile |last2=Nour |first2=Kteily |date=2017-01-01 |title=The enemy as animal: Symmetric dehumanization during asymmetric warfare. |url=https://doaj.org/article/12402d4ab66240a8a6c50c403cf0b8bf |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=12 |issue=7 |pages=e0181422 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0181422 |doi-access=free |pmid=28746412 |pmc=5528981 |bibcode=2017PLoSO..1281422B |issn=1932-6203}}</ref> Dehumanization has been used not only to deny the humanity of Palestinians but also to undermine their historical presence on the lands.<ref name=":10">Zouheir Maalej and Aseel Zibin. “Metaphors They Kill by: Dehumanization of Palestinians by Israeli Officials and Sympathizers.” ''International Journal of Arabic-English Studies'' 25, no. 1 (2025): 201–22. doi:10.33806/ijaes.v25i1.693.</ref>

During the 2014 Gaza War, studies found high and comparable levels of blatant dehumanization among both Israeli and Palestinian participants.<ref name=":44">{{Cite journal |last1=Emile |first1=Bruneau |last2=Kteily |first2=Nour |date=2017-07-26 |title=The enemy as animal: Symmetric dehumanization during asymmetric warfare |journal=PLOS ONE |language=en |volume=12 |issue=7 |pages=e0181422 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0181422 |doi-access=free |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=5528981 |pmid=28746412|bibcode=2017PLoSO..1281422B }}</ref> A survey using the "ascent of man scale",<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kteily |first1=Nour |last2=Bruneau |first2=Emile |last3=Waytz |first3=Adam |last4=Cotterill |first4=Sarah |date=November 2015 |title=The ascent of man: Theoretical and empirical evidence for blatant dehumanization. |journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology |volume=109 |issue=5 |pages=901–931 |doi=10.1037/pspp0000048 |pmid=26121523}}</ref> a common measure of dehumanizing attitudes, found that, on average, both sides rated each other closer to an animal than a fully evolved human when shown a [[March of Progress]] image.<ref name="Bruneau 2017">{{cite journal |last1=Bruneau |first1=Emile |last2=Kteily |first2=Nour |date=26 July 2017 |title=The enemy as animal: Symmetric dehumanization during asymmetric warfare |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=12 |issue=7 |pages=e0181422 |bibcode=2017PLoSO..1281422B |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0181422 |pmc=5528981 |pmid=28746412 |doi-access=free}}</ref> On the scale with "0 corresponding to the left side of the image (i.e., quadrupedal human ancestor), and 100 corresponding to the right side of the image ('full' modern-day human)"<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kteily |first1=Nour S. |title=The " Ascent of (Hu)Man " measure of blatant dehumanization |url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Ascent-of-HuMan-measure-of-blatant-dehumanization-Scores-are-provided-using-a_fig1_315981814 |access-date=10 November 2024 |website=ResearchGate |publisher=Current Directions in Psychological Science}}</ref> Israelis on average rated Palestinians 39.81 points lower than their own group and Palestinians on average rated Israelis 37.03 points lower than their own group.<ref name="Bruneau 2017" />

Following the [[October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel|Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023]], dehumanizing language intensified in Israeli political discourse.<ref name=":44" /> Senior officials used animalistic dehumanization through metaphors, such as "rats" and "cockroaches", to describe Palestinians in Gaza, which served to legitimize acts of violence.<ref name=":10" /> These statements have drawn international scrutiny and were cited in legal proceedings at the [[International Court of Justice]] (ICJ) concerning allegations of incitement to genocide.<ref name=":33" /> Dehumanizing content also circulates widely on social media. In Israel, such rhetoric targets not only Palestinians but also left-wing Jewish Israelis, who have been depicted in demonizing and animalistic terms, including "dogs’’, "microbes’’, and "vermin’’.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Harel |first1=Tal Orian |last2=Jameson |first2=Jessica Katz |last3=Maoz |first3=Ifat |date=2020-04-01 |title=The Normalization of Hatred: Identity, Affective Polarization, and Dehumanization on Facebook in the Context of Intractable Political Conflict |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2056305120913983 |journal=Social Media + Society |language=EN |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=2056305120913983 |doi=10.1177/2056305120913983 |issn=2056-3051|doi-access=free }}</ref> Political orientation has also been shown to influence levels of dehumanization, with research indicating that right-wing Israelis are more likely to dehumanize Palestinians than left-wing Israelis.<ref name="Haslam201424" /> 

Dehumanizing [[zoomorphism]]s are found in both [[animal stereotypes of Palestinians in Israeli discourse|Israeli discourse]] and [[Jews and Israelis as animals in Palestinian discourse|Palestinian discourse]]. During [[South Africa v. Israel (Genocide Convention)|South Africa's submission]] to the ICJ that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians, the president of the ICJ cited [[Yoav Gallant]] for using the phrase "human animals" in reference to Palestinians.<ref>{{cite web |last1=McKernan |first1=Bethan |date=26 January 2024 |title=Israeli officials accuse international court of justice of antisemitic bias |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/26/israeli-officials-accuse-international-court-of-justice-of-antisemitic-bias |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240126183324/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/26/israeli-officials-accuse-international-court-of-justice-of-antisemitic-bias |archive-date=26 January 2024 |access-date=27 January 2024 |website=The Guardian}}</ref> On the Palestinian side, dehumanization has also been linked to support for violence.<ref name=":9" /> According to Joana Ricarte, dehumanizing perceptions of Israelis have contributed to moral frameworks that legitimized violence, including the attacks of October 7 2023.<ref name=":9" />