This paper reports robust experimental evidence that humanization—in the form of individuating information about another’s personal preferences—leads to decreased prosocial behavior toward in-group members. Previous research shows that individuating information increases prosocial behavior toward dehumanized out-group members. Its consequences for in-group members, however, are less well understood. Using methods from social psychology and behavioral economics, four experiments show that individuating information decreases pro-social behavior toward in-group members in a variety of settings (charitable giving, altruistic punishment, and trust games). Moreover, this effect results from decreased reliance on group membership labels, and not from other potential explanations like the induction of new group identities. Understanding these effects sheds light on the motives behind intergroup conflict, which may not result from a difference in social perception (i.e., humanized in-groups and dehumanized out-groups), but rather from biases associated with group membership (i.e., in-group favoritism and out-group discrimination) that are eliminated by individuating information. Together, these results indicate that humanization carries a hidden cost for in-group members by disrupting group identities that would otherwise make them targets of altruistic actions.

本文报告了强有力的实验证据，表明人性化——以关于他人个人偏好的个体化信息的形式——导致对群体内成员的亲社会行为减少。先前的研究表明，个体化信息会增加对非人性化外群体成员的亲社会行为。然而，它对组内成员的影响却鲜为人知。使用来自社会心理学和行为经济学的方法，四项实验表明，在各种环境（慈善捐赠、利他主义惩罚和信任游戏）中，个体化信息会降低对群体内成员的亲社会行为。此外，这种影响是由于减少了对群体成员标签的依赖，而不是来自其他潜在的解释，如引入新的群体身份。了解这些影响有助于了解群体间冲突背后的动机，这可能不是社会认知差异（即人性化的内群体和非人性化的外群体）的结果，而是与群体成员相关的偏见（即群体内通过个体化信息消除的偏袒和外群体歧视）。总之，这些结果表明，人性化会破坏群体身份，否则会使他们成为利他行为的目标，从而为群体内成员带来隐藏成本。通过个体化信息消除的群体内偏袒和群体外歧视）。总之，这些结果表明，人性化会破坏群体身份，否则会使他们成为利他行为的目标，从而为群体内成员带来隐藏成本。通过个体化信息消除的群体内偏袒和群体外歧视）。总之，这些结果表明，人性化会破坏群体身份，否则会使他们成为利他行为的目标，从而为群体内成员带来隐藏成本。