Social psychology of human trafficking.

Abstract

This chapter considers the insight that social psychology brings to human trafficking research and practice. It discusses the relevance of the social selfconcept, cognitive processes, and biases when perceiving persons, particularly human trafficking survivors and perpetrators. The chapter also explains how stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination can be especially devastating to human trafficking survivors, keeping them in bondage and providing justifications for inhumane treatment and refusal of dignity. It is worth noting some other relevant domains of social psychology would be helpful to explore in relation to human trafficking, for example, helping behavior and altruism.Social psychology has been defined as "a branch of psychology dedicated to the study of how people think about, influence, and relate to each other" (Sutton & Douglas, 2020, p. 3) or, in other words, "the scientific study of the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situations" (Gilovich et al., 2019, p. 5). These definitions certainly delineate a very broad field, likely to touch on multiple aspects of individual lives. The core areas of interest to social psychologists include the social dimension of the selfconcept, social cognition (or how people perceive and think about others 6 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING