A Survey of Military Combatants to Establish Self-Dehumanization’s Construct Validity

Mechanistic self-dehumanization—the experience of oneself as an emotionless, unreflective instrument—may facilitate intergroup violence by disengaging affect while preserving execution. Although prior qualitative interviews suggested its relevance in combat, its empirical validity had not been tested. We surveyed 503 Ukrainian combatants who had used lethal force to examine whether mechanistic self-dehumanization is distinct from related constructs and whether it predicts violence. Results showed that mechanistic self-dehumanization is empirically separable from other altered self-concepts and uniquely predicts a single-minded focus on killing and desires to commit war crimes. In contrast, animalistic self-dehumanization predicted a more emotionally volatile pattern marked by both attraction to and distress about violence. These findings establish the construct validity of mechanistic self-dehumanization and highlight distinct psychological pathways through which the self may be reshaped to enable violence.