Editorial overview: The empirical examination of dehumanisation as a psychological construct

Researchers have empirically studied dehumanisation as a psychological construct for the past two decades, revealing a diverse construct with far-reaching societal implications. This special issue presents a series of review articles covering this diversity, discussing dehumanisation in perceptual, meta-cognitive, attributional, interpersonal, intergroup and human atrocity contexts. It incorporates philosophical, developmental, social, cognitive, and comparative psychology, and neuroscience perspectives, describing evidence for the neural, behavioural and societal impacts of dehumanisation. As such, it provides a snapshot of research and perspectives on this topic, and future directions and gaps yet to be addressed.