Other

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[[Image:9o4ZhPk.jpg|thumb|right|Us vs. Them|The human mind, ''oversimplifying?'' That's {{wpl|Splitting_(psychology)|unheard of|!}}]]
{{sociology}}
{{cquote|Father, Mother, and Me<br/>Sister and Auntie say<br/>All the people like us are We,<br/>And every one else is They.|||Rudyard Kipling<ref>[http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_wethey.htm "We and They"]</ref>}}
{{cquote|Us, and them<br/>And after all, we're only ordinary men<br/>Me, and you<br/>[[God]] only knows, it's not what we would choose, to do|||Pink Floyd, ''Us and Them''<ref> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKiLEgAzFDQ</ref>}}

The '''Other''' is a concept, first coined by noted philosopher and [[Woo|woo-meister]] [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegel]], and popularized in more recent times in [[Edward Said]]'s ''Orientalism''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://visuality.org/genderandtechnoculture/keyterms.pdf|title=Key Terms in Gender Studies|author=Karyl E. Ketchum|format=PDF}}</ref> The practice of "othering" generally leads to a polarization of people into two groups: An "us" group (or "in-group" in [[jargon]]), which usually includes the proponent of an idea and their intended audience, and a "them" group (or "[[Outgroup|out-group]]"), who are the people who are used as an object for [[Prejudice|hate and/or mistrust]].

Othering starts as early as the schoolyard playground, when "we" won't play with "them" because "they" have cooties or smell. (This early othering is generally associated with the "them" being a different and scary [[gender]].)<ref>{{cite journal|author=Barrie Thorne and Zella Luria|url=http://www.umt.edu/sociology/faculty_staff/ellestad/documents/275_ThorneandLuria1986_sexualityandgenderinchildrensworlds_s10.pdf|title=Sexuality and Gender in Children's Daily Worlds|work=Social Problems|volume=33|issue=3|date=Feb. 1986|pp=176-190|format=PDF}}</ref> Teen "cliques" are extremely good at "othering", laying the groundwork for them to pass on [[Bigotry|such attitudes]] to their own [[children]].

==Philosophy==
In [[philosophy]], the Other is that which is not self. Early [[philosophy of mind|theory of mind]] focused at length on this idea of "self" and "other", and how you could tell one from the other. At what point do you end, and "Other" begin, and how do you cognitively know?<ref group=note>Modern theory of mind has, in many ways, set the "how do we know" aspect aside, as we have a good understanding of how the body and mind interact.</ref> It is this primitive idea that there is a self and an Other that is extended to make an "ourselves" and "those others", and thus the "us" and "them."<ref group=note>And after all, we're only ordinary men.</ref>

==Literature==
The "Other" in [[literature]] studies is a way of an author interacting with their yet unknown audience, in effect making a new book for each reader.<ref>{{wpa|Mikhail Bakhtin}}</ref>

Jonathan Swift [[satire|satirized]] human [[tribalism]] in his novel ''Gulliver's Travels'', with two nations (Lilliput and Blefuscu) going to [[war]] against each other over which end eggs ought to be broken on.

==Dehumanization==

{{cquote|Dehumanisation, is such a big word. It's been around since Richard The Third.|||{{wpl|The Human League||,}} ''Blind Youth''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.metrolyrics.com/blind-youth-lyrics-human-league.html|title="Blind Youth" lyrics}}</ref>}}

{{cquote|It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. *No one* ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.|||[[Terry Pratchett]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Pratchett|first=Terry|date=1998|title=Jingo: A Discworld Novel (Epub)|publisher=HarperCollins|page=265|isbn=9780061807695}}</ref>}}

[[Demonization]] through othering is a common occurrence in war — by using derogatory language to make the enemy more of an "Other", killing them becomes easier.  

It is also a frequent ploy in [[conspiracy theories]]. For example, [[birtherism|birthers]] other [[Barack Obama]] by positing that he is not a [[Caucasian|Real American]]{{TM}} as he was secretly born in [[Kenya]] and thus became a usurper of the [[POTUS|presidency]]. Another claim attached to this conspiracy theory often includes the false belief that he is a crypto-[[Muslim]]. The emphasis on his middle name (i.e., B. '''[[Saddam Hussein|HUSSEIN]]''' Obama) is another example of othering.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://socialsciencelite.blogspot.com/2009/08/politics-of-othering.html|title=The Politics of Othering|work=Social Science Lite}}</ref> The "birther-lite" variant peddled by [[Dinesh D'Souza]] claims that Obama has a "Kenyan, anti-[[colonialist]] philosophy".<ref>See also ''[[The Obama Deception]]''.</ref> However, his [[2012 United States presidential election|2012]] opponent [[Mitt Romney]] was also accused of being "the other" and "different",<ref>[http://www.cuttingedge.org/news/n2226.cfm One such example] (Warning: contains conspiratorial nonsense.)</ref> likely an attack on his [[Mormon]] beliefs.

==Psychology==
===The granfalloon technique===
The social [[psychologist]] Henri Tajfel is famous for discovering that in-groups and out-groups could be created in [[experiment]]s by completely arbitrary methods, such as dividing people into two groups by flipping a coin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://homepage.ntlworld.com/gary.sturt/tajfel.htm|title=Experiments in Intergroup Discrimination|work=Scientific American}}</ref> This is technically known as the "minimal group paradigm", but popularly known as the "granfalloon technique". In Kurt Vonnegut's ''Cat's Cradle'', a granfalloon is a proud but meaningless association of [[human]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.heretical.com/miscella/granfall.html|title=Granfalloons etc.|author=A.R. Pratkanis}}</ref> An experiment using methods similar to Tajfel's was the "robbers cave experiment", in which a summer camp for boys was set up. The boys were divided into two groups and soon developed a heated rivalry, naming themselves the "Rattlers" and the "Eagles".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lesswrong.com/lw/lt/the_robbers_cave_experiment/|title=The Robbers Cave Experiment|work=[[Less Wrong]]}}</ref>

===Evolutionary psychology===
{{main|Evolutionary psychology}}
====Othering and race====
A well-known phenomenon in psychology is called the "other-race effect" or "cross-race effect", in which people have more trouble differentiating the faces of people of other [[race]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/11/understanding-the-other-race-effect.ars|title=Understanding the Other Race Effect|work=Ars Technica}}</ref> The [[evolutionary psychology|evolutionary psychologists]] Leda Cosmides, John Tooby, and Robert Kurzban studied the process of othering concerning [[racism]]. They provided two possible explanations for racism as a by-product of evolved traits:
*Racism is a by-product of the evolved mechanism of [[essentialism|essentialist]] thinking inherent in [[folk science|folk biology and/or folk sociology]].
*Racism is a by-product of the evolved mechanism for determining coalitional alliances (i.e., kin groups, tribes, small in-groups).<ref>{{cite journal|author=Cosmides, Tooby, and Kurzban|url=http://www.sas.upenn.edu/psych/PLEEP/pdfs/2003%20Cosmides%20Tooby%20Kurzban%20TiCS.pdf|title=Perceptions of Race|work=Trends in Cognitive Sciences|volume=7|issue=4|date=Apr. 2003|format=PDF}}</ref>
They also find that subjects that were shown stimuli presenting people of other races as part of their coalition reduce categorization by race.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Cosmides, Tooby, and Kurzban|url=http://www.pnas.org/content/98/26/15387.full.pdf|title=Can race be erased? Coalitional computation and social categorization|work=PNAS|volume=98|issue=26|date=Dec. 18, 2001|format=PDF}}</ref> Similar research has also shown a reduction in the other-race effect using this technique on children.<ref>{{cite journal|author=S. Sangrigoli et al.|url=http://www.pallier.org/papers/SangrigoliPallier_finaldraft.pdf|title=Reversibility of the other-race effect in face recognition during childhood|work=Psychological Science|date=June 2004|format=PDF}}</ref>

====Dunbar number and the monkeysphere====
Anthropologist [[Dunbar's Number|Robin Dunbar]] has placed the hypothetical mean size of human social groups at approximately 150 based on surveys of hunter-gatherer societies. He speculates that the mind has trouble conceiving larger numbers of people as "real" people.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blog.mopsos.com/archives/000075.html|title=Communities of Practice and the Dunbar Number|work=Mopsos blog}}</ref> This has been popularized as the "[[monkeysphere]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html|title=What Is the Monkeysphere|work=Cracked}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Immigration|Alien]]
*[[Authoritarianism]]
*[[Bigotry]]
*[[Discrimination]]
*[[Nazism]]
*[[Stereotype]]
*[[Totalitarianism]]
*[[Xenophobia]]
*[[War]]
*[[Worldview]]
*[[Jonanism]]

==External links==
*[http://www.otherness.dk/ The Centre for Studies in Otherness], Aarhus University
*[http://www.theonion.com/content/node/29441 Relations Break Down Between U.S. and Them], ''The Onion''
*[[Dubya]] says:[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpPABLW6F_A "You're either with us or with the terrorists."]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20170416211207/https://measureofdoubt.com/2011/04/27/beware-of-the-granfalloon/ Beware of the Granfalloon], Measure of Doubt

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Discrimination]]
[[Category:Philosophy]]
[[Category:Psychology]]
[[Category:Political terms]]
[[Category:Sociology]]
[[Category:Social justice]]

Categories: Discrimination, Philosophy, Psychology, Political terms, Sociology, Social justice