More human than you: Attributing humanness to self and others

Abstract

People typically evaluate their in-groups more favorably than out-groups and themselves more favorably than others. Research on infrahumanization also suggests a preferential attribution of the "human essence" to in-groups, independent of in-group favoritism. The authors propose a corresponding phenomenon in interpersonal comparisons: People attribute greater humanness to themselves than to others, independent of self-enhancement. Study 1 and a pilot study demonstrated 2 distinct understandings of humanness - traits representing human nature and those that are uniquely human - and showed that only the former traits are understood as inhering essences. In Study 2, participants rated themselve..