(pilot study) Crowdsourcing participants’ perceptions of being dehumanized: An examination of the impact of compensation

In recent years, crowdsourcing has been widely used in social science research, including psychology, as a low-cost way to collect data from diverse samples. At the same time, ethical concerns have been raised about conducting research via crowdsourcing: researchers may engage in mechanistic dehumanization of participants (i.e., perceiving others as cold, robot-like entities; Haslam, 2006), which could lead to inappropriate surveys that fail to adequately consider participants (e.g., Igarashi, 2018; Xia, 2023). However, prior research has not examined participants’ perceptions—that is, how participants themselves experience being dehumanized. The present study investigates whether the amount of compensation participants receive for taking part in a survey influences their perception that they are being dehumanized. Prior to conducting the main study, we will examine whether there is a difference in perceived appropriateness of compensation between a high-compensation survey and a low- compensation survey.