Departmental Papers (ASC)
Document Type
Technical Report
Date of this Version
11-2017
Publication Source
Social Psychological and Personality Science
Volume
8
Issue
8
Start Page
934
Last Page
942
DOI
10.1177/1948550617693064
Abstract
Empathic failures are common in hostile intergroup contexts; repairing empathy is therefore a major focus of peacebuilding efforts. However, it is unclear which aspect of empathy is most relevant to intergroup conflict. Although trait empathic concern predicts prosociality in interpersonal settings, we hypothesized that the best predictor of meaningful intergroup attitudes and behaviors might not be the general capacity for empathy (i.e., trait empathy), but the difference in empathy felt for the in-group versus the out-group, or “parochial empathy.” Specifically, we predicted that out-group empathy would inhibit intergroup harm and promote intergroup helping, whereas in-group empathy would have the opposite effect. In three intergroup contexts—Americans regarding Arabs, Hungarians regarding refugees, Greeks regarding Germans—we found support for this hypothesis. In all samples, in-group and out-group empathy had independent, significant, and opposite effects on intergroup outcomes, controlling for trait empathic concern.
Copyright/Permission Statement
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
Keywords
emotion, empathy, parochial empathy, intergroup conflict, intergroup empathy
Recommended Citation
Bruneau, E., Cikara, M., & Saxe, R. (2017). Parochial Empathy Predicts Reduced Altruism and the Endorsement of Passive Harm. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8 (8), 934-942. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617693064
Included in
Cognition and Perception Commons, Cognitive Psychology Commons, Communication Commons, Community Psychology Commons, Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons, Personality and Social Contexts Commons, Social Psychology Commons
Date Posted: 15 June 2018
This document has been peer reviewed.