dehumanizing
Treating as objects
Dehumanizing describes treatment or conditions that strip away human dignity, reducing people to objects, animals, or abstractions.
Propaganda often dehumanizes enemies to make violence easier: The dehumanizing rhetoric portrayed refugees as vermin.
Working conditions can be dehumanizing when they deny basic needs or autonomy: dehumanizing factory conditions, the dehumanizing effects of solitary confinement.
Reducing humans to things
- commodificationTransforming into sellable goods
- depersonalizationDetachment from one's identity
- instrumentalizationTreating as mere means
- reificationTreating abstracts as concrete
fetishization · thingification · chattel · tokenism · exploitation · faceless · nameless · disposable
Decline in condition
- humiliationLoss of dignity
- debasementDiminishing worth or purity
- brutalizationSystematic infliction of cruelty
- animalisticResembling brute nature
barbaric · subhuman · bestial · demean · demoralize · abase · vilify · denigrate
Preformed unfavorable opinion
- bigotryIntolerance toward differing views
- racismPrejudice based on ethnicity
- sexismGender-based prejudice
- xenophobiaHatred of outsiders
homophobia · casteism · classism · ableism · antisemitism · apartheid · segregation · persecution
Complete separation from others
- estrangementEmotional separation between people
- exclusionBeing barred from participation
- marginalizationRelegation to powerless periphery
- ostracismBanishment from a group
stigmatization · othering · ghettoization · segregation · banishment · pariah · outcast · untouchable
Causing loss of respect
- condescendingSuperior and dismissive manner
- patronizingTreating someone as inferior
- dismissiveShowing contemptuous disregard
- contemptuousShowing open disrespect
disparaging · mocking · derisive · scornful · disdainful · sneering · degrading · humiliating
objectification
Reducing humans to things
- commodificationTransforming into sellable goods
- depersonalizationDetachment from one's identity
- instrumentalizationTreating as mere means
reification · fetishization · thingification · chattel · tokenism · exploitation · faceless · nameless · disposable · interchangeable
degradation
Decline in condition
- humiliationLoss of dignity
- debasementDiminishing worth or purity
- brutalizationSystematic infliction of cruelty
animalistic · barbaric · subhuman · bestial · demean · demoralize · abase · vilify · denigrate · cruelty
prejudice
Preformed unfavorable opinion
- bigotryIntolerance toward differing views
- racismPrejudice based on ethnicity
- sexismGender-based prejudice
xenophobia · homophobia · casteism · classism · ableism · antisemitism · apartheid · segregation · persecution · scapegoating
isolation
Complete separation from others
- estrangementEmotional separation between people
- exclusionBeing barred from participation
- marginalizationRelegation to powerless periphery
ostracism · stigmatization · othering · ghettoization · segregation · banishment · pariah · outcast · untouchable · invisible
demeaning
Causing loss of respect
- condescendingSuperior and dismissive manner
- patronizingTreating someone as inferior
- dismissiveShowing contemptuous disregard
contemptuous · disparaging · mocking · derisive · scornful · disdainful · sneering · degrading · humiliating · infantilizing
- intimidationthreats, threatening, menacing, intimidate, bullying
- mistreatmentbullying, harassing, intimidating, oppressing, humiliating
- vilificationvilification, vilifying, demonizing, demonisation, demonize
- dispiritingdemoralizing, discouraging, disheartening, dispiriting, deflating
- wickedevil, wicked, villainous, malicious, sinister
- intolerantbigoted, biased, prejudiced, discriminatory, intolerant
dehumanizinghumanizing
Making more relatable
affirming · validating · individualizing · humanising · recognizing
dehumanizingdignifying
Giving unearned respect
respectful · honoring · ennobling · reverent · elevating
dehumanizingempowering
Giving authority or confidence
liberating · emancipating · person-centered · holistic · individualized
human, humane, humanity, inhuman, inhumane, inhumanity, humanism, humanist, dehumanize