Research Questions

How is humiliation lived?

Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies grew out of a research project that was incepted by Lindner in 1996/7. This project was based on a number of research questions. These questions require further investigation. They are as already mentioned above: What is experienced as humiliation? What happens when people feel humiliated? When is humiliation established as a feeling? What does humiliation lead to? Which experiences of justice, honor, dignity, respect and self-respect are connected with the feeling of being humiliated? Which role do globalization and human rights play for humiliation? How is humiliation perceived and responded to in different cultures? What role does humiliation play for aggression? What can be done to overcome violent effects of humiliation?
Please contact Paul A. Stokes for support, if you wish to carry out research on this topic.

When was the last time you were humiliated?" When was the last time you humiliated someone?"

"When was the last time you were humiliated?" Those who wish to do research on this question would document incidents of humiliation by giving the month and the year and then describe in long-hand what happened.  Then the following question would be asked, "When was the last time you humiliated some one?" again requiring a month and year, and a description of what happened. Firstly, there might be an enormous asymmetry in perceiving oneself as being humiliated and perceiving oneself as humilating someone else, since an enormous amount of humiliation presumably stays unaware.  Secondly, this kind of open-ended research would begin to allow a collection of types of humiliation, and contexts, and maybe some frequency of humiliation in contexts, so that it is possible to start identifying risk contexts.
Please contact Floyd Webster Rudmin for support, if you wish to carry out research on this topic.

How is humiliation related to deadly conflict?

Numerous theories address the causation of deadly conflict and mass violence, such as breakdown theory, resource mobilization theory, prospect theory, or cultural theory. Analysis of terror and violence, both in their local and global expressions, usually lacks the element of humiliation. Research is required to address the question in what ways humiliation may be relevant.
Please contact Paul A. Stokes for support, if you wish to carry out research on this topic.

How is humiliation related to global terror?

If not pure unfathomable evil, then poverty, deprivation, and marginalization are often pinpointed as driving people into terrorist activities, somehow automatically. However, why do we then see well-to-do and highly educated terrorists organizing and perpetrating atrocities? Why do poverty, deprivation, marginalization, ethnic incompatibilities, or even conflict of interest and struggles over scarce resources sometimes lead to cooperation and innovation and only sometimes to violence? When there is too little bread, we may share and not fight. Thus, all so-called "hard" explanations for violence and war may falter, because at times the very same conditions lead to innovative peaceful solutions instead of violent confrontation. Is it possible to stipulate humiliation is the "missing link" that explains why conditions at times are perceived as illegitimate violations justifying counter-violence, at other times not, and why wealthy people may organize and perpetrate terror?
Please contact Paul A. Stokes for support, if you wish to carry out research on this topic.

How do feelings of humiliation relate to the network society and dialogue

New information technology has expanded the possibility for creative dialogue. It is bringing a global network society into existence. Technological innovation has expanded our capacity for global communication and mobility to an astonishing degree. Information can be transmitted and manipulated with unprecedented speed and accuracy. This has had a major impact upon the way organizations operate.

Increasingly, human affairs are being managed within networks that are dynamic, open and interconnected. However, communication does only merit the term when it is two-way. Those who talk should also listen. Communication requires dialogue and dialogue that is built on trust. Dialogue built on trust can be more frank and critical on all sides. This increases the possibility of challenging assumptions, changing perceptions and keeping minds open. Research can address the interplay of the transition towards open dialogue and the feelings that are elicited when critical voices gain space. Practical reasons for dignifying dialogue.
Please contact Paul A. Stokes for support, if you wish to carry out research on this topic.

How do feelings of humiliation relate to moral reasons for the reduction of inequality and their emotional reverberations?

Economic human rights stipulate moral reasons for why inequality, locally and globally, ought to be greatly reduced. Research could address the emotional reverberations of this normative stipulation. Which feelings are created when something that previously was merely wished for is increasingly regarded to be enshrined as a right? Is it hope that is elicited? Or is disappointment bred at failing reality? And if disappointment, how is this disappointment negotiated? Are the "rich" pinpointed as perpetrators of humiliating double standards? Which other framings are available and held on to?
Please contact Paul A. Stokes for support, if you wish to carry out research on this topic.

How do feelings of humiliation relate to pragmatic reasons for the reduction of inequality and their emotional reverberations?

Repression is deemed to be immoral within the human rights framework, and, in the long term, it may also be impractical. Research could address pragmatic reasons for greater equality. Can the reduction of inequality lead to a liberation of creativity worldwide? Can the reduction of inequality lead to new ideas and the creation of innovative solutions for the dire problems that beset the globe? How is the emotional side of this equation being played out? Does respect increase creativity, or not? Does the notion of equal dignity play a role for creativity? Which effect has the introduction of the idea of equal dignity in old coercive systems, where people are used to being given orders? How is the idea of equal dignity lived out in contexts where equal dignity is already accepted as a norm?
Please contact Paul A. Stokes for support, if you wish to carry out research on this topic.

How do feelings of humiliation relate to equality and equal dignity?

What is the relationship between equality and equal dignity? How do people frame this relationship? What are the differences between both notions and where do they overlap? At what point are feelings of humiliation inserted? How are notions such as inequality and poverty inscribed into the discourse of equal dignity?
Please contact Paul A. Stokes for support, if you wish to carry out research on this topic.

How do feelings of humiliation relate to coexistence as a minimum standard for human relations?

The Handbook of Interethnic Coexistence (edited by Weiner, Eugene in 1998, foreword by Alan Slifka) lays out the stakes for coexistence. Coexistence is a concept that can be used in several ways, and research would be necessary to clarify what is required so that this concept indeed serves as a way to achieve equal dignity. It would be important to find out under which circumstances this concept is being rejected as an attempt by the powerful to keep the rest in humiliating lowliness without them protesting, and under which circumstances it indeed can promote peace.
Please contact Paul A. Stokes for support, if you wish to carry out research on this topic.