AI-Induced Dehumanization

Psych 🧠 - 455/500

Hello reader,

In today’s paper, we explore a paradox of how AI becoming more emotionally intelligent and humanlike, might make us treat real humans worse.

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What is it?

This happens through a psychological process called assimilation-induced dehumanization i.e. the more we attribute “humanlike minds” to AI, the more our standards for what’s “human” shift downward.

person angry with another person oil painting

Key Findings:

• People who interacted with emotionally expressive robots were more likely to support unfair treatment of employees.

• When AI’s abilities were extreme (e.g., far beyond human emotion), people instead re-humanized humans, showing a contrast effect.

• The harm happens only when AI feels too close to human, not when it’s clearly a tool.

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What do I need to know:

• It’s not about AI being bad, it’s about our minds adjusting: we normalize emotional intelligence in machines and subconsciously lower our empathy bar for humans.

• Emotional AI blurs human boundaries: it makes “humanness” seem replicable.

• Contrast effects can save us: emphasizing how AI is different (not human) helps preserve our empathy toward people.

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Source:

• https://myscp.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jcpy.1441?campaign=woletoc