Unethical prosocial behaviour (UPB) refers to acts where people violate widely held moral rules to benefit others. In light of previous research on the association between immoral behaviours and dehumanization, we examined whether and how engaging in UPB would impact the tendency to self‐dehumanize. Across four studies (valid N = 1640), we found that UPB led to less self‐dehumanization than unethical proself behaviour, which was mediated sequentially by social connectedness and perceived morality (Studies 2–4). Moreover, the comparison between UPB and ethical prosocial behaviour indicated that UPB did not necessarily lead to more self‐dehumanization than ethical prosocial behaviour (Study 4). Although UPB was rated as less moral, it was associated with similar levels of social connectedness as ethical prosocial behaviour. These results have significant implications for research on morality and dehumanization and highlight the role of social connectedness in reducing dehumanization.

中文翻译：

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不道德的亲社会行为和自我非人化：社会联系和感知道德的作用


不道德的亲社会行为 （UPB） 是指人们违反广泛遵守的道德规则以使他人受益的行为。鉴于先前关于不道德行为与非人化之间关系的研究，我们研究了参与 UPB 是否以及如何影响自我非人化的倾向。在四项研究 （有效 N = 1640） 中，我们发现 UPB 导致的自我非人化比不道德的自我行为要少，后者依次由社会联系和感知道德介导（研究 2-4）。此外，UPB 与道德亲社会行为之间的比较表明，UPB 不一定比道德亲社会行为导致更多的自我非人化（研究 4）。尽管 UPB 被评为道德较低，但它与道德亲社会行为的社会联系水平相似。这些结果对道德和非人化的研究具有重要意义，并突出了社会联系在减少非人化方面的作用。