Capozza, D., Andrighetto, L., Falvo, R., & Trifiletti, E.
The use of GNAT to study intergroup dehumanization
The aim of the study was to propose the Go/No-Go (GNAT; Nosek & Banaji, 2001) as a tool to assess infrahumanization and dehumanization effects. The relationship between Southern and Northern Italians was considered; participants were Southern students enrolled in psychology courses at the University of Padova (a Northern city). Stimuli used were 10 ingroup typical names, 10 outgroup typical names, 10 human categories (e.g., nurses, Whites), and 10 animal categories (e.g., gazelle, raven). In a pilot-study, it was found that the human and animal categories chosen did not differ in valency. GNAT is shown to be an effective tool for assessing automatic infra- and dehumanization. However, effects of ingroup and not outgroup dehumanization were found. This result may depend on the lower status of the ingroup. Future studies should further analyze the effects of status on intergroup dehumanization.
