# Dehumanization Dehumanization is the representation or treatment of people as less than fully human, morally considerable, or entitled to ordinary protections. It may appear through animalizing metaphors, contamination language, numerical abstraction, collective blame, or claims that a group is incapable of reason or feeling. Repeated dehumanization can expand permission for exclusion and violence, especially when joined to grievance, threat, identity fusion, and institutional power. Analysis must distinguish critique of conduct or institutions from denial of human standing. Related: [[wiki/Grievance Activation|Grievance Activation]], [[wiki/Identity Fusion|Identity Fusion]], [[wiki/Threat Assessment|Threat Assessment]], [[wiki/Narrative Systems|Narrative Systems]].