Altruism or psychological escape: Why does empathy promote prosocial behavior?

European Journal of Social Psychology

Volumn 39, Issue 5, 2009, Pages 649-665

  Stocks, Eric L ^a   Lishner, David A ^b   Decker, Stephanie K ^c  

^a UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT TYLER   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN OSHKOSH   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ALTRUISM; AROUSAL; AWARENESS; BEHAVIOR; EMPATHY; EXPERIMENTAL MODEL; HUMAN; HUMAN EXPERIMENT; PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION; VICTIM;

EID: 69249100955     PISSN: 00462772     EISSN: 10990992     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.561     Document Type: Article

References (40)

1. Aquinas, T. (1917). The summa theologica (Vol. 2, Part II). (Fathers of the English Dominican Province, Trans.). New York: Benziger Bros. (Original work produced 1270.)
2. Batson, C. D. (1991). The altruism question: Toward a social-psychological answer. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
3. Batson, C. D., Ahmad, N., & Stocks, E. L. (2004). Benefits and liabilities of empathy-induced altruism. In A. Miller (Ed.), The social psychology of good and evil (pp. 359-385). New York: Guilford Press.
4. Batson, C. D., Bolen, M. H., Cross, J. A., & Neuringer-Benefiel, H. (1986). Where is the altruism in the altruistic personality? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 212-220.
5. Batson, C. D., Dyke, J. L., Brandt, J. R., Batson, J. G., Powell, A. L., McCaster,M. R., et al. (1988). Five studies testing two new egoistic alternatives to the empathy-altruism hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 52-77.
6. Batson, C. D., Duncan, B., Ackerman, P., Buckley, T., & Birch, K. (1981). Is empathic emotion a source of altruistic motivation? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 290-302.
7. Batson, C. D., Early, S., & Salvarani, G. (1997). Perspective taking: Imagining how another feels versus imagining how you would feel. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 751-758.
8. Batson, C. D., Fultz, J. N., & Schoenrade, P. A. (1987). Distress and empathy: Two qualitatively distinct vicarious emotions with different motivational consequences. Journal of Personality, 55, 19-40.
9. Batson, C. D., O'Quin, K., Fultz, J., Vanderplas, M., & Isen, A. (1983). Self-reported distress and empathy and egoistic versus altruistic motivation for helping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 706-718.
10. Batson, C. D., & Shaw, L. L. (1991). Evidence for altruism: Toward a pluralism of prosocial motives. Psychological Inquiry, 2, 107-122.
11. Cialdini, R. B. (1991). Altruism or egoism? That is (still) the question. Psychological Inquiry, 2, 124-126.
12. Cialdini, R. B., Brown, S. T., Lewis, P. L., Luce, C., & Neuberg, S. L. (1997). Reinterpreting the empathy-altruism relationship: When one into one equals oneness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 481-494.
13. Cialdini, R. B., Schaller, M., Houlihan, D., Arps, D., Fultz, J., & Beaman, A. L. (1987). Empathy-based helping: Is it selflessly or selfishly motivated? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 749-758.
14. Coke, J. S., Batson, C. D., & McDavis, K. (1978). Empathic mediation of helping: A two-stage model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 752-766.
15. Davis, M. H. (1994). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Madison, WI: Brown & Benchmark.
16. Doris, J., & Stitch, S. (2007). Moral psychology: Empirical approaches. In E. Zalta (Ed.), In The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy (n.p.). San Francisco: North Point Press. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2007/entries/moral-psych-emp/
17. Dovidio, J. F., Piliavin, J. A., Schroeder, D. A., & Penner, L. A. (2006). The social psychology of prosocial behavior. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
18. Eisenberg, N., & Miller, P. (1987). Empathy and prosocial behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 91-119.
19. Forster, J., Liberman, N., & Friedman, R. S. (2007). Seven principles of goal activation: A systematic approach to distinguishing goal priming from priming of non-goal constructs. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 11, 211-233.
20. Hertel, G., & Fiedler, K. (1998). Fair and dependent versus egoistic and free: Effects of semantic and evaluative priming on the 'ring measure of social values'. European Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 49-70.
21. Hoffman, M. L. (1981). The development of empathy. In J. Rushton, & R. Sorrentino (Eds.), Altruism and helping behavior: Social, personality, and developmental perspectives (pp. 41-63). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
22. Hoffman, M. L. (1991). Is empathy altruistic? Psychological Inquiry, 2, 131-133.
23. Hoffman, M. L. (2000). Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
24. Hornstein, H. A. (1978). Promotive tension and prosocial behavior: A Lewinian analysis. In L. Wispe (Ed.), Altruism, sympathy, and helping: Psychological and sociological principles (pp. 177-207). New York: Academic Press.
25. Hornstein, H. A. (1991). Empathic distress and altruism: Still inseparable. Psychological Inquiry, 2, 133-135.
26. Karylowski, J. (1982). Two types of altruistic behavior: Doing good to feel good or to make the other feel good. In V. J. Deriega, & J. Grzelak (Eds.), Cooperation and helping behavior: Theories and research (pp. 397-413). New York: Academic Press.
27. Krebs, D. (1975). Empathy and altruism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 1134-1146.
28. Lennon, R., & Eisenberg, N. (1987). Gender and age differences in empathy and sympathy. In N. Eisengerg, & J. Strayer (Eds.), Empathy and its development: Cambridge studies in social and emotional development (pp. 195-217). New York: Cambridge University Press.
29. Maner, J. K., Luce, C. L., Neuberg, S. L., Cialdini, R. B., Brown, S., & Sagarin, B. J. (2002). The effects of perspective taking on motivations for helping: Still no evidence for altruism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1601-1610.
30. Neuberg, S. L. (1988). Behavioral implications of information presented outside of conscious awareness: The effect of subliminal presentation of trait information on behavior in the prisoner's dilemma game. Social Cognition, 6, 207-230.
31. Nichols, S. (2004). Sentimental rules: On the natural foundations of moral judgment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
32. Penner, L. A., Dovidio, J. F., Piliavin, J. A., & Schroeder, D. A. (2005). Prosocial behavior: Multilevel perspectives. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 365-392.
33. Piliavin, J. A., Dovidio, J. F., Gaertner, S. L., & Clark, R. D., III, (1981). Emergency intervention. New York: Academic Press.
34. Piliavin, J. A., Dovidio, J. F., Gaertner, S. L., & Clark, R. D., III, (1982). Responsive bystanders: The process of intervention. In V. J. Derlega, & J. Grzelak (Eds.), Cooperation and helping behavior: Theories and research (pp. 279-304). New York: Academic Press.
35. Piliavin, J. A., & Piliavin, I. M. (1973). The good samaritan: Why does he help? University of Wisconsin: Madison, Unpublished manuscript.
36. Schroeder, D. A., Penner, L. A., Dovidio, J. F., & Piliavin, J. A. (1995). The psychology of helping and altruism: Problems and puzzles. New York: McGraw Hill.
37. Sober, E., & Wilson, D. S. (1998). Unto others: The evolution and psychology of unselfish behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
38. Toi, M., & Batson, C. D. (1982). More evidence that empathy is a source of altruistic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43, 281-292.
39. Vitaglione, G. D., & Barnett, M. A. (2003). Assessing a new dimension of empathy: Empathic anger as a predictor of helping and punishing desires. Motivation and Emotion, 27, 301-324.
40. Wallach, L., & Wallach, M. A. (1991). Why altruism, even though it exists, cannot be demonstrated by social psychological experiments. Psychological Inquiry, 2, 153-155.