The paper ‘Dehumanization and Minimization of Informal Caregivers Suffering: The Legitimizing Role of Justice Perceptions’ by Ângela Romão and Isabel Correia published in The Spanish Journal of Psychology has been chosen as the Editor’s Choice Article for September 2024.

A study conducted at the Centre for Psychological Research and Social Intervention (CIS-Iscte) revealed that the dehumanization of informal caregivers and individuals’ perceptions of justice can contribute to the devaluation of informal caregivers’ suffering.

Despite the increase in the number of dependent individuals, resulting from the global trend of population aging and the prevalence of chronic diseases, governments and society, in general, continue not to prioritize the safety, health, and well-being of informal caregivers. These caregivers play a crucial role in economic activity and social well-being in the context of an underfunded, fragile, and fragmented healthcare system, but their role ends up being unrecognized and is often socially devalued.

Ângela Romão, a PhD student in Psychology at Iscte (CIS-Iscte), and Isabel Correia, a researcher at CIS-Iscte, sought to understand what might lead to informal caregivers not being socially recognized and valued. To this end, they analyzed the role of the dehumanization of informal caregivers and individuals’ perceptions of justice in how people perceive caregivers and their suffering. The results showed that informal caregivers were dehumanized by being attributed emotions commonly shared between humans and animals (e.g., sadness, pain) but denied emotions considered exclusively human (e.g., melancholy, shame). This phenomenon was especially observed among study participants who most agreed that people get what they deserve (the concept of Belief in a Just World). Moreover, the participants’ Belief in a Just World and the dehumanization of caregivers led the participants to further devalue the informal caregivers’ suffering. This paradoxical dynamic suggests that believing in a just world, which should promote justice, can inadvertently lead to minimizing the challenges and difficulties faced by informal caregivers.

The results also showed that differences in dehumanization were not explained by the gender of the informal caregivers. “This suggests that this effect is not driven by the characteristics of the caregiver themselves, but rather by the demands of their role, i.e., exposure to traumatic events, suffering, and highly demanding care routines.” – explains Ângela Romão.

Denying the humanity and daily difficulties faced by informal caregivers can be both useful and harmful: it is a functional and adaptive strategy employed by those who have more difficulty dealing with others’ suffering and are more motivated to perceive the world as a just place, and, at the same time, it is harmful to caregivers as it exacerbates their situation.

“The study of these psychological processes is important to better understand the mechanisms underlying the lack of social recognition of informal caregivers and provides clues about potential intervention strategies to improve their disadvantaged situation. It will be extremely difficult to meet the growing care needs of an aging population without recognizing the vital role played by millions of informal caregivers.” – concludes Isabel Correia.