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The Influence of Emotion and Empathy on Decisions to Help Others

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  • Weilong Xiao
  • Xue Lin
  • Xinwei Li
  • Xiaofei Xu
  • Huanen Guo
  • Binghai Sun
  • Huaibin Jiang

Abstract

Many decisions to help others are made in emotionally associated circumstances. Empathy is known to motivate prosocial behavior. However, no studies have investigated the interaction between empathy and emotion in deciding to help others. In total, 151 students scoring either high or low in empathy viewed three types of emotional clips (anger vs. sadness vs. neutrality) and completed the “Help for Another Study†task. Analysis of variance showed that participants chose to invest more time in helping others when they felt sadness than anger. Participants with high empathy chose to spend more time helping others than those with low empathy. Pearson’s correlation revealed a significant positive correlation between perspective-taking, empathic concern, and willingness to invest time in assistance under anger state; perspective-taking and fantasy were significantly correlated with willingness to invest time under sadness state. The results suggest that both emotion (i.e., sadness) and empathy (i.e., high trait empathy) are vital motivators that exert impact on prosocial helping decisions.

Suggested Citation

  • Weilong Xiao & Xue Lin & Xinwei Li & Xiaofei Xu & Huanen Guo & Binghai Sun & Huaibin Jiang, 2021. "The Influence of Emotion and Empathy on Decisions to Help Others," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:2:p:21582440211014513
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440211014513
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Brennan, Geoffrey & González, Luis G. & Güth, Werner & Levati, M. Vittoria, 2008. "Attitudes toward private and collective risk in individual and strategic choice situations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 253-262, July.
    2. Vittorio Pelligra & Alejandra Vásquez, 2020. "Empathy and socially responsible consumption: an experiment with the vote-with-the-wallet game," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 89(4), pages 383-422, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sumit S. Deole & Yue Huang, 2024. "Suffering and prejudice: do negative emotions predict immigration concerns?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 37(2), pages 1-39, June.

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