Alexander Landry
Alexander Landry
Research Statement
I study intergroup conflict, focusing on how ordinary people come to support and carry out its most extreme forms: war, genocide, and other forms of mass violence. Drawing on experiments, surveys, and qualitative interviews, I connect individual psychology to organized action by examining when dehumanization makes extreme violence seem legitimate and how violent organizations shape participation in it. Understanding how mass violence becomes thinkable and organized may reveal opportunities to interrupt it.
Research Interests
- Intergroup conflict
- Dehumanization
- Mass violence
Job Market Paper
When people describe an outgroup as less than human, are they merely expressing intense dislike, or does dehumanization have force of its own? Across a meta-analysis, cross-cultural surveys, and an experiment, we find that blatant dehumanization is often literal, psychologically distinct from dislike, and especially powerful in predicting support for intergroup violence. This clarifies our understanding of the psychology promoting support for intergroup violence and may inform efforts to address it.