The Moral Side of Dehumanization: From Harm to Reparation across Interpersonal and Intergroup Relations

Adopting an interpersonal perspective on dehumanization, recent research has shown that immorality leaves traces not only in how we perceive others in human terms, but also in how we view ourselves. While victims’ self-dehumanization has been associated with negative consequences that may perpetuate cycles of violence, the meaning and function of perpetrators’ loss of humanity remain less well understood. Therefore, the present dissertation examines when and how perpetrators’ self-perceived humanness – potentially undermined by their own interpersonal immoral behavior or by reminders of ingroup-perpetrated atrocities – may motivate moral reparation toward the harmed counterpart as a way to restore their lost human status. The first empirical chapter (Chapter 2) addresses this question by testing whether self-dehumanization, in the aftermath of interpersonal harm, can motivate reparative tendencies toward the victim, and whether engaging in such reparative efforts contributes to the rehumanization of both the self and the other. Building on these findings, Chapter 3 delves deeper into the moral mechanisms underlying this relationship, seeking to clarify the conditions under which self-dehumanization may indirectly foster different forms of moral repair – such as financial compensation or apology – and the willingness to reconcile with the harmed counterpart. Finally, Chapter 4 expands the focus from the interpersonal to the intergroup level, exploring whether and how self- and ingroup-dehumanization relate to moral engagement variables – such as acknowledgment of ingroup responsibility – and predict support for reparative actions following historical wrongdoing perpetrated by one’s own group. Taken together, this dissertation aims to advance our understanding of the dynamic interplay between morality and perceptions of humanness – how they shape and respond to one another across immoral and reparative behaviors, in both interpersonal and intergroup domains.