Normative data for 148 Spanish emotional words in terms of attributions of humanity

Abstract

Research on outgroup infrahumanization is based on the subtle and not deliberate distinction of secondary emotions, an exclusively human emotion, and primary emotions, which are shared by animals and human beings. According to prior studies, people attribute more secondary emotions to the ingroup than to the outgroup which they deny or restrict the ability to experience them. This study presents normative measures for 148 emotional words viewed by Spanish people in seven dimensions related to humanity assessments. Two factors were revealed by the principal components analysis (PCA). The first component was loaded on dimensions that differentiate the emotions depending on the cognitive demands (cognition, moral quality and duration) whereas the second one was loaded on their expressive profile (visibility, age at which they are acquired, universality and causal locus). These dimensions were analyzed in relation to desirability, familiarity and explicit humanity.