Air pollution is a major global environmental issue, yet its psychological consequences have only started to receive attention from scholars. We examined whether and how air pollution would lead to self- and other-dehumanization. Across one field study and five pre-registered experimental studies, we showed that air pollution increased people's dehumanization of themselves (Studies 1–2b) and others (Study 3a-4). Air pollution also increases people's perceived vulnerability to disease (PVD), including perceived infectability (PI) and germ aversion (GA). Further, across our studies, PI consistently accounted for the effect of air pollution on dehumanization (Studies 2a-4). In addition, our findings also supported the roles of negative affect (Study 2b) and disgust (Study 4) in shaping dehumanization in the face of air pollution. Therefore, air pollution not only impairs our physical health but also influences our perception of humanness. We discussed the implications of these findings for the literature on air pollution and dehumanization.

空气污染是一个全球性的重大环境问题，但其心理后果才刚刚开始受到学者们的关注。我们研究了空气污染是否以及如何导致自我和他人的非人性化。在一项实地研究和五项预先注册的实验研究中，我们表明空气污染加剧了人们对自己（研究 1-2b）和其他人（研究 3a-4）的非人性化。空气污染还增加了人们对疾病（PVD）的感知脆弱性，包括感知传染性（PI）和细菌厌恶（GA）。此外，在我们的研究中，PI 始终解释空气污染对非人化的影响（研究 2a-4）。此外，我们的研究结果还支持负面影响（研究 2b）和厌恶（研究 4）在面对空气污染时塑造非人性化的作用。所以，空气污染不仅损害我们的身体健康，而且影响我们对人性的看法。我们讨论了这些发现对空气污染和非人性化文献的影响。