The Thoughts of We

The subtitle of How to be Less Human is as depressing as it sounds. The book, written by psychologists, explores the psyche’s ability to harbor prejudice and dehumanize others. Although this book is a little cynical about race, it is nonetheless a fascinating look at human nature. Its focus on prejudice and dehumanization is the same as that of The Expanse, but there are some differences.

One study found that when people remember being dishonest, they attribute less human traits to themselves. The opposite occurs if they remember being honest. Self-dehumanization can lead to unethical behavior, like lying or cheating. In a similar experiment, Kouchaki and colleagues asked participants to write about their experiences as both honest and dishonest. To minimize the number of memories that the participants recalled, the researchers divided them into three groups. The first group wrote about lying and the other group wrote about how they spent their evenings being honest.