The main goal of the presented experiment was to test if the infra-humanization effect would appear in the minimal group paradigm, which would indicate a basic character of this phenomenon. The experiment was carried out in the modified Kandinsky-Klee paradigm, with the use of emotions attribution measure - participants ascribed primary and secondary emotions to members of minimal ingroup and outgroup. It appeared that more secondary - typically human - emotions were ascribed to ingroupers than to the outgroup members, with no such difference as far as primary emotions - common to humans and animals - were concerned. This finding is in line with J.-P. Leyens' findings (Leyens et al. 2000, 2001). Leyens named the phenomenon of ascribing more secondary emotions to ingroupers than to outgroup members 'infra-humanization' as it concerns denying some typically human characteristics - such as secondary emotions - to the outgroupers. The phenomenon of infra-humanization appeared in the minimal group paradigm. The reported finding indicates that infra-humanization is a basic phenomenon and not a distant result of processes caused by social categorization.
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