I am so excited because I’ve found research that suggests two evidence-based exercises we can use to reduce our prejudice and increase our connection to others – by using our imaginations!!! The first is through what psychology researchers call imagined contact theory. So let’s back up a bit. In 1954 Gordon Allport put forth the … Continue reading How We Can Work on Reducing Prejudice and Increasing Connection from Home! →

I first came to study the psychology of genocide and racism because I wanted to understand my grandfather, a German Jew who himself had experienced anti-Semitism in 1930s Germany, right up to his leaving with Youth Aliyah to emigrate to Palestine in January 1939. It boggled my mind that a person who had himself experienced … Continue reading What Makes Some Victims Champion Human Rights and Others Not?: Altruism Born of Suffering and Trying to Understand My Grandfather →

A fair amount of research has been done on the heroic helpers of the Holocaust, people who endangered their lives to rescue Jews, to see what characteristics led to their helping and what differentiates them from the many others who stayed passive bystanders – or even became perpetrators. In “The Psychology of Rescue,” psychologist Ervin … Continue reading Learning from Heroic Helpers →

In my earlier Language Matters blogpost, I focused on dehumanization  and how we name specific groups of people. Other aspects of language are also important, especially when considering the lessons of genocide and racism; today we’ll focus on euphemistic labeling. We use euphemisms – seemingly “nicer” words to describe actions – quite often. Mostly, we … Continue reading Language Matters 2: Euphemistic Labeling of Immoral Actions →

Last week an activist friend of mine was discussing the actions of a white supremacy group in her town on her Facebook feed. Another person, whom I don’t know, commented that at a recent progressive organizational meeting they had determined that the best way to address white supremacy groups and people was to ignore them. … Continue reading Why We Can’t Ignore Racist Speech and Actions →

Some people believe that the language we use doesn’t matter, especially when it comes to groups of people. I’ve heard people I love call Chinese people “Chinks” (for example) and when I protested that such a word was racist, they say, “Oh you know I’m not really racist. It’s just a word. You know what … Continue reading Language Matters: Dehumanization →

Us-them thinking is a psychological tendency involved in genocide and racism. In Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing, social psychologist James Waller (2007) explains that empirical and experimental research demonstrates that when groups form, members experience the boundaries of the group as meaningful, dividing people into in-group members and out-group members … Continue reading Us-Them Thinking and Fear →

It’s ironic to be starting this blog with social dominance orientation (SDO). SDO is, according to Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, and Malle (1994), “one’s degree of preference for inequality among social groups” (p. 741) or “the extent to which one desires that one’s in-group dominate and be superior to out-groups” (p. 742). A person with high … Continue reading High-Social Dominance Orientation and Prejudice →

Happy July 1st and welcome to my blog! I am passionate about investigating and countering racism and other kinds of us-them thinking that divides people. This blog is about genocide and racism and the lessons from both we can use to make ourselves less racist and our society more equitable. I’ve been reading about – … Continue reading Countering Racism and Us-Them Thinking →

Stay tuned.