The Psychological Mechanisms of Oppression: Empathy, Disgust, and the Perception of Group Membership
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Date
2014
Authors
Harris, Alexander
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
From a psychological standpoint, the oppression and marginalization of certain groups
can be understood on the basis of two emotional mechanisms, empathy and disgust.
This essay seeks to illuminate how both emotions are heavily modulated by the
perception of group membership and how both show the capability to be heavily
influenced by social and cultural contexts. This cultural prejudice works by determining
what markers of difference (such as skin color or religion) are socially salient, which
allows groups to build hierarchies based on those differences that would otherwise
remain irrelevant. This paper does not seek to justify group domination as an organic
product of psychology, but rather to merely give an account of how the psychological
phenomena of disgust and empathy accentuate and collapse, respectively, the borders
between people on the basis of in-group and out-group perception. Using the results of
psychological tests, the author draws out certain arguments that are philosophically
telling as well as politically relevant. Taken together, the social and psychological
construction of differences between racial groups in the United States has altered how
and when empathy and disgust have been elicited, and has thereby facilitated the
reification of extraordinarily oppressive and atrocious group biases into a strict
hierarchal system. With this understanding of how group oppression is able to take
place on a psychological level we can better understand what can be done to mitigate
the negative effects of in-group, out-group interaction.
Description
10 pages
Keywords
Oppression, Groups
Citation
Harris, A. (2014). The Psychological Mechanisms of Oppression: Empathy, Disgust, and the Perception of Group Membership. Oregon Undergraduate Research Journal, 7(1). doi:10.5399/uo/ourj.7.1.4