What does dehumanisation mean?
Dehumanisation is the process of treating people as though they lack essential human qualities such as dignity, individuality, empathy, or the capacity to feel. It can occur through language, institutions, policies, cultural representation, or treatment that reduces people to objects, categories, or targets. The word is especially common in political, social, ethical, and psychological criticism, including discussions of propaganda, hostile rhetoric, workplace exploitation, and the treatment of patients or other vulnerable groups. Dehumanisation is stronger and more specific than terms such as disrespect: it implies the removal or denial of humanity itself. Although often used to describe deliberate psychological and social processes, it can also refer to the portrayal of people in ways that makes them seem less fully human. Understanding the concept is important because language and institutional practices that dehumanise people can normalize discrimination, cruelty, and unequal treatment.
nounThe process of treating people as less than human, especially by denying their individuality, dignity, or capacity for feeling. It can also refer to the removal of human qualities from a person, group, portrayal, or institution.
- The treatment of people or groups as less than human through denial of their dignity, individuality, emotions, or humanity.
- The act or process of removing human qualities or personal significance from a person, group, portrayal, or institution.
"Critics condemned the dehumanisation of patients when care was reduced to numbers and targets."
"The dehumanisation of migrants through hostile political rhetoric has been widely condemned."
"She criticised the dehumanisation of patients when care was reduced to numbers and targets."
The plural is possible but uncommon; the singular is normally used for the process or phenomenon in general.
"The report examined several forms of dehumanisation within the labour market."
Language that portrays people as subhuman can make cruelty seem ordinary, making dehumanisation both a warning about propaganda and a reminder to protect the humanity of others.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does dehumanisation come from?
Dehumanisation was formed in English from de-, meaning removal or reversal, human, and the suffix -isation, which forms a noun of action or process. The English core verb belongs to the late eighteenth-century word family, while the British -isation form became the standard noun spelling. Its human element derives through French from Latin humanus, meaning human or humane, a root also represented in English by words such as humanity and humane.
Related word forms
How dehumanisation is actually used
A strongly negative and generally formal term used in social, political, ethical, and psychological criticism. Dehumanisation is the standard British spelling; the North American spelling is dehumanization.
Easily confused with dehumanisation
Dehumanisation means treating people as less than human, whereas depersonalisation usually means removing someone's sense of personal identity or individuality.