COVID-19 restrictions and sense of humanness: the role of human needs threat

• Autores: Cristina Baldissarri, Giuseppe Raguso, Chiara Volpato, Roberta Rosa Valtorta, Luca Andrighetto
• Localización: International Journal of Social Psychology, Revista de Psicología Social, ISSN-e 1579-3680, ISSN 0213-4748, Vol. 40, Nº 1, 2025, págs. 19-45
• Idioma: inglés
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Las restricciones por la COVID-19 y el sentido de humanidad: el papel de la amenaza a las necesidades humanas
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    El presente estudio analiza los efectos de las restricciones por la COVID-19 en la autopercepción de la humanidad a través de la mayor sensación de amenaza a las necesidades humanas fundamentales. Además, de manera exploratoria, analizamos el posible impacto de este patrón en la identificación con toda la humanidad, en términos de vínculo con la humanidad y preocupación por toda la humanidad. A través de un estudio experimental prerregistrado (N = 278), demostramos que los participantes a quienes se les pidió que recordaran las restricciones relacionadas con la COVID-19 informaron una mayor sensación de amenaza a las necesidades humanas y, a su vez, unos niveles más altos de autodeshumanización. Además, descubrimos que recordar restricciones, en comparación con el grupo de control, conducía a una menor preocupación por la humanidad y la afectaba de manera indirecta a través de una mayor amenaza a las necesidades humanas y la autodeshumanización.

  • English

    The present study analyses the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on self-perception of humanness through the increased sense of threat to fundamental human needs. Furthermore, in an explorative way, we analysed the possible impact of this pattern on the identification with all humanity, in terms of bond with humanity and concern for all humanity. Through a preregistered experimental study (N = 278), we showed that participants who were asked to recall COVID-19-related restrictions reported a greater sense of human needs threat and, in turn, higher levels of self-dehumanization. In addition, we found that remembering restrictions, compared to the control group, led to lower concern for humanity and indirectly affected it via increased threat of human needs and self-dehumanization.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Baldissarri C., Andrighetto L., Gabbiadini A., Volpato C. (2017). Work and freedom? Working self-objectification and belief in personal free...
  • Baldissarri C., Andrighetto L., Volpato C. (2014). When work does not ennoble man: Psychological consequences of working objectification....
  • Baldissarri C., Demoulin S., Kteily N. (2022). Introduction to the special issue of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations less than human:...
  • Bastian B., Crimston D. (2014). Self-dehumanization. TPM: Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology, 21(3), 241–250.
  • Bastian B., Haslam N. (2010). Excluded from humanity: The dehumanizing effects of social ostracism. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,...
  • Bastian B., Haslam N. (2011). Experiencing dehumanization: Cognitive and emotional effects of everyday dehumanization. Basic and Applied Social...
  • Bastian B., Jetten J., Chen H., Radke H. R., Harding J. F., Fasoli F. (2013). Losing our humanity: The self-dehumanizing consequences of social...
  • Baumeister R. F., Leary M. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological...
  • Braun V., Clarke V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.
  • Cohen J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Routledge.
  • Cohen J. (1992). Quantitative methods in psychology: A power primer. Psychological Bulletin, 112(1), 155–159.
  • Demoulin S., Nguyen N., Chevallereau T., Fontesse S., Bastart J., Stinglhamber F., Maurage P. (2021). Examining the role of fundamental psychological...
  • Greenberg J., Solomon S., Pyszczynski T., Rosenblatt A., Burling J., Lyon D., Simon L., Pinel E. (1992). Why do people need self-esteem? Converging...
  • Hair J. F., Black W. C., Babin B. J., Anderson R. E., Tatham R. L. (2010). Multivariate data analysis (Vol. 5). Pearson Prentice Hall.
  • Hale T., Angrist N., Goldszmidt R., Kira B., Petherick A., Phillips T., Webster S., Cameron-Blake E., Hallas L., Majumdar S., Tatlow H. (2021)....
  • Hamer K., Penczek M., McFarland S., Wlodarczyk A., Łużniak-Piecha M., Golińska A., Manrique Cadena L., Ibarra M., Bertin P., Delouvée S. (2021)....
  • Haslam N., Loughnan S. (2014). Dehumanization and infrahumanization. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 399–423.
  • Hayes A. F. (2017). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. The Guilford Press.
  • IBM Corp. (2019). IBM SPSS statistics for windows (Version 26.0) [Computer software]. IBM Corp.
  • Kouchaki M., Dobson K. S., Waytz A., Kteily N. (2018). The link between self-dehumanization and immoral behavior. Psychological Science, 29(8),...
  • Kteily N. S., Landry A. P. (2022). Dehumanization: Trends, insights, and challenges. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(3), 222–240.
  • Lagios C., Caesens G., Nguyen N., Stinglhamber F. (2021). Explaining the negative consequences of organizational dehumanization. Journal of...
  • Landry A. P., Seli P. (2024). A family-resemblances framework for dehumanization research. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology,...
  • Levi P. (1958). Se questo è un uomo [If this is a man]. Einaudi.
  • Long Z., Alharthi R., El Saddik A. (2020). NeedFull — a tweet analysis platform to study human needs during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York...
  • Loughnan S., Baldissarri C., Spaccatini F., Edler L. (2017). Internalizing objectification: Objectified individuals see themselves as less...
  • Marchlewska M., Hamer K., Baran M., Górska P., Kaniasty K. (2022). COVID-19: Why do people refuse vaccination? The role of social identities...
  • Markowitz D. M., Shoots-Reinhard B., Peters E., Silverstein M. C., Goodwin R., Bjälkebring P. (2021). Dehumanization during the COVID-19 pandemic....
  • Mathieu E., Ritchie H., Rodés-Guirao L., Appel C., Giattino C., Hasell J., Macdonald B., Dattani S., Beltekian D., Ortiz-Ospina E., Roser...
  • Matias T., Dominski F. H., Marks D. F. (2020). Human needs in COVID-19 isolation. Journal of Health Psychology, 25(7), 871–882.
  • McFarland S., Hackett J., Hamer K., Katzarska-Miller I., Malsch A., Reese G., Reysen S. (2019). Global human identification and citizenship:...
  • McFarland S., Webb M., Brown D. (2012). All humanity is my ingroup: A measure and studies of identification with all humanity. Journal of...
  • Murray A. J., Durrheim K., Dixon J. (2022). Everyday dehumanization: Negative contact, humiliation, and the lived experience of being treated...
  • Pancani L., Preti E., Riva P. (2020). The psychology of smartphone: The development of the Smartphone Impact Scale (SIS). Assessment, 27(6),...
  • Prajapati B., Dunne M., Armstrong R. (2010). Sample size estimation and statistical power analyses. Optometry Today, 16(7), 10–18.
  • Prati G., Mancini A. (2021). The psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns: A review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies and...
  • Renger D., Mommert A., Renger S., Simon B. (2016). When less equal is less human: Intragroup (dis)respect and the experience of being human....
  • Ruttan R. L., Lucas B. J. (2018). Cogs in the machine: The prioritization of money and self-dehumanization. Organizational Behavior and Human...
  • Ryan R. M., Deci E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology,...
  • Sainz M., Baldissarri C. (2021). Abusive leadership versus objectifying job features: Factors that influence organizational dehumanization...
  • Schoemann A. M., Boulton A. J., Short S. D. (2017). Determining power and sample size for simple and complex mediation models. Social Psychological...
  • Shi J., Zhang J., Lun S. W., Wang X. (2023). I am not a full person: Perceiving threat of COVID-19 leads to self-dehumanization. Current Research...
  • Sparkman D. J. (2023). Identification with humanity and health-related behaviors during COVID-19. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations,...
  • Sparkman D. J., Kleive K., Ngu E. (2022). Does activating the human identity improve health-related behaviors during COVID-19?: A social identity...
  • Steele C. M. (1988). The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self. In Berkowitz L. (Ed.), Advances in experimental...
  • Suh J., Horvitz E., White R. W., Althoff T. (2021, March 8–12). Population-scale study of human needs during the covid-19 pandemic: Analysis...
  • Tesser A. (1988). Toward a self-evaluation maintenance model of social behavior. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 21, 181–227.
  • Valtorta R. R., Baldissarri C., Volpato C., Andrighetto L. (2022). Intergroup biologization and outgroup prejudice in the time of COVID-19....
  • Volpato C., Contarello A. (1999). Towards a social psychology of extreme situations: Primo Levi’s If This is a Man and social identity theory....
  • Williams K. D. (2009). Ostracism: A temporal need-threat model. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 275–314.
  • Yang W., Jin S., He S., Fan Q., Zhu Y. (2015). The impact of power on humanity: Self-dehumanization in powerlessness. PLOS ONE, 10(5), Article...
  • Zagefka H. (2021). Intergroup helping during the coronavirus crisis: Effects of group identification, ingroup blame and third party outgroup...
  • Zagefka H. (2022). Prosociality during COVID-19: Globally focussed solidarity brings greater benefits than nationally focussed solidarity....