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The Role of Empathy and Compassion in Conflict Resolution
Abstract
Empathy and empathy-related processes, such as compassion and personal distress, are recognized to play a key role in social relations. This review examines the role of empathy in interpersonal and intergroup relations, including intractable conflicts. Despite the limitations of empathy, there is growing evidence that empathy and compassion are associated with more prosocial behavior in interpersonal relations. Furthermore, empathy and compassion have been associated with more favorable attitudes and higher readiness for reconciliation across a range of intergroup settings. This review ends by summarizing recent evidence for the beneficial effects of compassion training on interpersonal and intergroup relations and by outlining new avenues for future research on how compassion training could reduce intergroup conflicts.
... Its antecedents include perspective-taking and a common ingroup identity (for a summary, see [15]). Making it a particularly intriguing variable in an intergroup context, several studies demonstrate its relevance for intergroup relations (for reviews, see [16][17][18]). Moreover, experimental studies demonstrate that individuals instructed to sympathise with others display greater supportiveness vis-à-vis the target and the target's ingroup (e.g., [13,19,20]; for a review, see [3]). ...
... Third, the behaviour in itself might be viewed as violating societal norms or threatening the ingroup, thereby escalating intergroup conflict [37]. In sum, one would expect individuals who face negative (i.e., undesired) outgroup behaviour to have a particularly low motivation to respond sympathetically to the offending outgroup-a situation likely characteristic of intergroup conflicts [17]. In line with appraisal frameworks of emotion and emotion regulation in intergroup conflicts [38], we propose that emotion regulation-in particular IER-might mitigate this sympathy-reducing effect of undesired outgroup behaviour. ...
... Given that sympathy is a key correlate of intergroup forgiveness and reconciliation and plays an important role in intergroup conflicts [17,32,36,39], understanding who is most likely to sympathise with outgroup members (and when) contributes to our understanding of the benefits emotion regulation might have for promoting positive intergroup relations beyond the mere downregulation of negative emotions. Herein, we take a step towards answering the question of whether reaping the benefits of IER in terms of higher sympathy is either a question of "who" (i.e., a Person effect) or of "who and when" (i.e., a Person x Situation effect). ...
Intergroup emotions powerfully shape intergroup relations. Anger and fear fuel, while hope and sympathy reduce intergroup strife. This implies that emotion regulation may play an important role in improving intergroup relations. Broadening the scope of prior research, we herein investigate the potential benefits of integrative emotion regulation for improving intergroup relations. Integrative emotion regulation involves actively paying attention to emotions to determine which information they provide. Interindividual differences in the use of integrative emotion regulation correlate with sympathy and supportiveness towards outgroups, but why this is the case is unclear. We tested two possible explanations: a person effect (i.e., interindividual differences in integrative emotion regulation shape respondents’ general outlook on outgroups) and a person-situation interaction effect (i.e., integrative emotion regulation reduces the impact of situational factors that would typically dampen sympathy, thereby shaping situation-specific responses to outgroups). In four experiments (total N = 984), we manipulated outgroup behaviour and measured interindividual differences in integrative emotion regulation. We found no interaction between integrative emotion regulation and outgroup behaviour in predicting outgroup-directed sympathy and supportiveness. Instead, integrative emotion regulation consistently correlated positively with supportiveness, mediated by sympathy. These findings suggest that those high in integrative emotion regulation have a more positive, general outlook on outgroups than those low in integrative emotion regulation, but being high in integrative emotion does not alter situational responses.
... In a general context, empathy is described as the ability to feel, share, understand and care about the emotions of other people. Empathy provides putting own feelings aside and focus on the other person [1][2][3][4]. Considering the concept of empathy, which is defined in different and various ways due to its multidimensional nature [5]; while some researchers consider empathy cognitively [6]; some researchers have focused on the affective function of sick/healthy individuals, try to understand them, reflect their feelings and support them. In this process, It is important to consider the needs and expectations of individuals, to respect their culture, beliefs and values, to accept their differences and not to be bias to them [12]. ...
... However, in the first factor analysis, it was decided to exclude 6 items (10,14,16,24,25,31) from the scale because they were included in more than one sub-scale. Then, a second factor analysis was performed with 29 items and 13 items (1,2,7,8,11,13,17,18,20,27,32,34,35) were eliminated because they were found in more than one subscale. The final analysis was conducted with remained 16 items. ...
Objective
To develop an empathy scale to measure the empathy in nurses.
Materials and methods
The sample of the study were collected between March and May in 2023 from 720 nurses working in private and state hospitals in İstanbul. Both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were carried out. IBM SPSS and AMOS were utilized for statistical analyses.
Results
KMO and Bartlett’s test values of scale showed that the dataset was convenient for factor analyses (KMO = 0.94, Chi-Square = 9683.89, df = 595). In exploratory factor analysis, the 16 items comprising scale were distributed in three subscales. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the scale was in sufficient model fit. Cronbach’s alpha of the total scale was 0.91.
Conclusion
Empathy scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool to evaluate the empathy levels of nurses in three subscales: Emotional Empathy, Cognitive Empathy and Compassionate Empathy. The scale is a valuable tool for quality nursing care and contributes to the definition of strategies that advance the quality of nursing care.
... К настоящему времени получены немногочисленные, но хорошо соответствующие теоретическим ожиданиям данные о связи адаптивных стратегий решения конфликтов с эмпатией (см. обзор в: Klimecki, 2019). Исследование роли эмпатии в конфликтах с помощью адаптируемой в этом исследовании методики CRSI на примере стиля поведения подростков в конфликте с матерью показало наличие различных влияний эмпатии на разные стили поведения (de Wied et al., 2007). ...
... Хорошо соответствуют результатам прошлых исследований (Сычев, Казанцева, 2017;Kurdek, 1994;Todorov et al., 2021) выявленные обратные связи неэффективного решения конфликтов и неблагоприятных стилей с удовлетворенностью отношениями. Также соответствуют прошлым данным корреляции неэффективности и стилей решения конфликтов с показателями стилей привязанности (González-Ortega et al., 2021;Paquette et al., 2020;Scheeren et al., 2015), прощения (Takada, Ohbuchi, 2013) и эмпатии (Klimecki, 2019). Подобно полученным ранее результатам (de Wied et al., 2007), в нашем исследовании была выявлена прямая связь эмпатии с позитивным стилем и обратная связь с вовлекающимся стилем. ...
The article presents the results of the development of Russian-language versions of two inventories proposed by L. A. Kurdek to assess the conflicts in close relationships: The Ineffective Arguing Inventory and the Conflict Resolution Style Inventory. The theoretical basis of these inventories is the result of studies that have revealed the important role of conflict in the stability of the family and described the unproductive pattern of conflict behavior. In a sample of 415 people (43 % men) aged 18 to 66 years old (M = 28.02; SD = 8.05) in premarital (42%) or marital (58%) relationships the factor structure of the questionnaires was confirmed using confirmatory factor analysis, as well as acceptable internal consistency coefficients of the scales were obtained. The validity of the questionnaires is proved by the expected correlations of ineffective arguing and three conflict resolution style scales (positive, conflict engagement, and withdrawal) with indicators of the frequency of conflicts in a couple, relationship satisfaction, attachment style, empathy, and forgiveness. The fourth conflict resolution style (compliance) showed weak correlations with only some validity criteria, which reflects a less important role of this style in the conflicts of premarital and married couples. Correlations of conflict scales with age and duration of relationships were not significant, weak gender differences were revealed only in the tendency to a positive style of conflict resolution (higher in women). The proposed inventories can be useful in future studies of marital conflict, as well as in preventive and counselling work.
... Much effort has been exerted in social psychology to develop valid means of measuring these capacities and mapping their relationships. This work highlights empathy, compassion, self-other connectedness, and group identity as key factors that determine prosocial behavior [6][7][8][9]. In this study, we compare how empathy and compassion, as measured in a video-based task, predict unrelated prosocial behavior against questionnaire measures. ...
... Assessing the readiness to help an unknown person is an approach that is adopted in many of the studies discussed above [9,12,17,18]. On the other hand, we measured prosociality in the context of prosocial preferences in intergroup relations, since previous research indicates that compassion can also foster preferences for intergroup peace and equality [6,8,25,26]. Here we employed a measure of ingroup favoritism, the Vladimir's Choice task (which asks participants to split symbolic wealth between their ingroup (Jewish Israelis) and outgroup (Palestinians)) [27]. ...
Classical psychometric approaches in social science measure individuals’ tendency to experience empathy and compassion. Using abstract questionnaire items, they place high demand on subjects’ capacity to introspect, memorize, and generalize the corresponding emotions. We employed a Socio-affective Video Task (SoVT)—an alternative approach that measures situationally elicited emotions—and assessed its predictive power over prosocial behavior against classical questionnaires in a sample of Israeli university students. We characterized the conceptual embedding of the SoVT concerning other measures of prosocial affect and cognition, and tested group identification as an alternative precursor to prosocial behavior. Eighty participants rated their reactions to videos that presented the suffering of others or everyday scenes on scales of negative affect (providing a proxy for elicited empathy) and compassion. We then administered classical questionnaires that target empathy (the Interpersonal Reactivity Index) and compassion (the Compassionate Love Scale), as well as measures of hypothetical and real-life helping and prosocial attitudes—including conflict attitudes and intergroup bias. While compassion ratings in the SoVT failed to predict prosociality more accurately than classical questionnaires, the SoVT empathy index succeeded and correlated strongly with other precursors of prosociality. These results support video-based situational assessment as an implicit and robust alternative in the measurement of empathy-related processes.
... Empathic communication is the answer to this question. Many scholars point out that empathy or empathic communication is important in resolving confrontations, especially in a multistakeholder context (Roffers and Waldo 1983;Seddon 2014;Senbel 2015;Klimecki 2019). For example, in the medical field, Cochrane et al. (2019) stress that compassionate care with a sense of empathy leads directly to improved outcomes, including better quality and safety, patient experience, physician engagement and financial performance. ...
In Malaysian kindergartens, the dance show is one of the highlights of the annual school concert. Rehearsals for the dance show are teacher-oriented, where teachers teach dance to children through demonstrations. In 2008, I was hired as a dance teacher and consultant by a kindergarten in Shah Alam to produce annual dance shows. Over 10 years, I began to see cracks in teacher-oriented instruction. It does not allow children to move and express themselves creatively. It deprives them of holistic growth opportunities. In 2018 and 2019, I proposed that the kindergarten shift from teacher-oriented instruction to creative dance through a collaboration project. Shifting the method of teaching dance means changing the ethos and culture of a kindergarten community. It was a process that involved communication and discussion with the principal, administrators, teachers, and parents about a change in expectations—how we value dance and work together to produce a dance show. Ultimately, we wanted to provide children with a better and healthier dance learning experience. This could be achieved through building a consensus on dance value in the kindergarten community. This article discusses how I managed to create an understanding of the value of creative dance by fostering empathy in the kindergarten community. In short, the consensus building of the value of dance was achieved through four approaches: (1) understand the needs of the principal and dance teachers through empathic listening, (2) foster empathy for children among dance teachers through embodiment and reflection activities, (3) foster empathy among class teachers and administrators to provide a pleasant and healthier dance learning experience, and (4) assign children as the agents in encouraging the empathic participation of their parents in their creative dance learning.
... Additionally, this stage sought to gather initial evidence of the tool's construct validity, particularly in relation to empathy. Empathy is identified as a crucial component in deescalation, with research suggesting a link between empathy levels and effective conflict management [56][57][58][59]. Given this link, we examined the relationship between participants' performance in the VR scenarios and their scores on the Toronto Empathy Scale [60]. ...
Managing complex behaviors in disability support settings requires competent de-escalation skills. However, the current training methods often lack sufficient opportunities for realistic practice. This study details a three-stage development and evaluation of a virtual reality (VR) application for disability support staff to safely build de-escalation skills through simulated interactions. The first phase involved creating VR prototype scenarios depicting escalations with adolescent clients. Next, 12 disability support experts conducted content validation by refining the scenarios to confirm appropriateness and realism. Finally, a pilot study tested the tool’s usability and examined the initial construct validity in 20 participants. The prototype achieved high usability ratings (average 81.0 (SD 10.7) on the System Usability Scale). Additionally, a positive correlation between VR performance and empathy levels, as measured using the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire, was found (Pearson’s r = 0.487, p = 0.035). The promising results highlight the VR application’s potential as a transformative training tool. Future research should expand scenario diversity and compare VR with traditional methods to establish its efficacy in diverse settings and offer a path to enhance staff and student capabilities in challenging environments.
... Empathy is fundamental in our interactions with others. For instance, empathy beneficially contributes to increased satisfaction in romantic relationships (Cramer and Jowett, 2010) and friendships (Portt et al., 2020) and more successful conflict resolution in couples, friends, and at work (Klimecki, 2019). It is especially in times of challenges to interpersonal emotion processesbe it a global pandemic or conflicts in relationshipsthat empathy is crucial in responding to others (Ferguson et al., 2010;O'Brien et al., 2009). ...
Background:
Empathic behavior is crucial in promoting positive social outcomes and
strengthening interpersonal bonds. Research on how empathy modulates responses to others’ emotions remains scarce yet is fundamental for elucidating mechanisms of impaired social functioning in psychopathology and its treatment.
Methods:
Two ecological momentary assessment studies (Ns = 125 and 204) investigated participants’ empathy ratings and usage of interpersonal emotion regulation strategies in 5,537 social interactions. We measured empathy, a multi-faceted construct, as dissected into its components of mentalizing and experience sharing in Study 1, while Study 2 additionally investigated empathic concern and personal distress.
Results:
Findings revealed that empathizers engage in significantly increased other-focused regulation, especially when feeling empathic concern. We also found differences in the strengths of the links between empathy and responses to others’ emotions: When we mentalize, share others’ emotions, or feel concerned, we choose more relationship- oriented strategies, including validation and soothing and less cognitive reappraisal and avoidance to regulate others’ emotions. In contrast, when personally distressed by others’ emotions, we select more cognitive reappraisal and avoidance and less relationship-oriented strategies.
Limitations:
Both studies relied on regulator reports.
Conclusions:
Empathy facets distinctly shape our responses to others’ emotions and can drive us to be increasingly emotionally responsive and relationship-oriented. Understanding these dynamics can enhance empathic interpersonal emotion regulation, a potentially valuable tool in treating affective disorders.
... Through the role of the Dalihan Na Tolu kinship system, the community of Mandailing Natal offers a compelling example of how deeply ingrained cultural practices can promote social cohesion and harmony in a diverse society. As stated by Klimecki (2019), empathy, sympathy, and collective well-being stand as a testament to the potential of traditional kinship structures to foster inclusive and peaceful communities. ...
This study aimed to investigate the dynamics of religious harmony and the strategies employed by Muslims and Christians in Mandailing Natal to build cohesive relationships through the indigenous cultural framework known as Dalihan Na Tolu. This study employed a qualitative descriptive method. Data collection was carried out through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and a literature review. Data analysis followed the Miles and Huberman model, which includes data presentation, data reduction, and conclusion drawing. The findings showed that the Muslim and Christian communities worked together to build peace and nurture religious harmony in Mandailing Natal. The cultural practice of Dalihan Na Tolu has long served as a foundation for accommodating the multicultural Mandailing society in fostering religious harmony and peace. The role of Dalihan Na Tolu could be seen in three aspects: socio-religious, economic, and customary practices. In these aspects, Muslims and Christians respected each other, fostered cooperation (gotong royong), and adopted a moderate and inclusive attitude towards diversity in their daily lives. Maintaining interfaith harmony through the cultural practice of Dalihan Na Tolu in Mandailing Natal is a crucial social modality that can contribute to peacebuilding and serve as a relevant strategy for preserving religious harmony in multicultural societies.
... Previous research has suggested that individuals with heightened cognitive empathy show greater cosmopolitan helping 16 . In the context of global issues, such as conflict resolution, empathy has been linked to more positive attitudes and increased readiness for reconciliation in various intergroup settings 50 . For instance, in post-conflict Bosnia-Herzegovina, a study showed that the extent to which young Bosnian Serbs understood the perspective and emotions of the outgroup (Bosnian Muslims), mediated the effects of shame and guilt on their willingness to make reparations to Bosnian Muslims 51 . ...
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a unified framework to address interconnected global issues, emphasizing the need for collective action across all sectors of society to achieve a sustainable future for all. In this paper, we empirically investigate how knowledge (awareness of global issues), cognitive skills (critical inquiry), and socio-emotional skills (cognitive empathy) relate to engagement towards global issues, and whether global citizenship identification mediates these relationships. Mediation analysis of data from 249 participants revealed that both awareness of global issues and cognitive empathy directly predict higher engagement levels. In contrast, no direct effect of critical inquiry was observed. Global citizenship identification significantly mediated the relationships between all three predictors and engagement: accounting for 70.7% of the effect of critical inquiry, 39.9% of the effect of awareness, and 33.6% of the effect of cognitive empathy. Our findings highlight that global citizenship identification plays a crucial role in translating knowledge and skills into active engagement. The results highlight the potential effectiveness of identity-based interventions in fostering more engaged communities and advancing efforts toward achieving the SDGs.
... The finding corroborates the works of Rahim (2003) which revealed that empathy and social skills are posi vely associated with management of conflict in the organisa on. The result further corroborates that of Promsri (2019), Fulya (2018) and Olga (2019) which stated that empathy has a posi ve and significant correla on with compe ng, collabora on, compromising, and accommoda ng style. ...
Conflicts especially interpersonal ones that are not managed emotionally intelligently o en result to undesirable consequences. In this direction on, this study examined the effect of emotional intelligence on conflict management in five selected Universities in Nigeria's SouthEast zone. The specific objectives of the study were: to determine the nature of the relationship between self-awareness and positive employee competitiveness; and to ascertain the nature of the relationship between empathy and accommodation . The study adopted survey research design involving academic and non-academic staff of the selected universities. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire which was based on five point Likert scale. Ordinary Least Square regression was used in testing the hypotheses. The results of the analysis revealed that: there is a positive and significant relationship between self-awareness and employee competitiveness; and there is a positive and significant relationship between empathy and accommodation among employees. The study concluded that the possession of certain attributes of emotional intelligence enhances positive outcome in conflict management. Based on the findings, the study recommended that both staff and management of the universities need to be exposed to capacity development programmes that emphasise focus on emotional intelligence.
... Empathy and sympathy share conceptual similarities as well as differences, and their relationships have been discussed in the context of organizational communications (e.g., Clark et al., 2019; for a CAT analysis of empathic speeches, see Wang, 2020). Research in other settings shows that expressions of empathy and sympathy can be useful for acknowledging harms and reducing intergroup tensions (Klimecki, 2019;Stephan & Finlay, 2003). examined the language used by different types of law enforcement officials (including police executives, police department spokespersons, and others) in the immediate aftermath of all known killings (n = 30) of unarmed African Americans by U.S. police in 2020. ...
This article discusses a timely and recent domain of intergroup relations scholarship that focuses on communication between police and the public—a domain we have previously described as intergroup par excellence. We begin with a brief overview of research on this topic, and then introduce four interrelated areas of research that illustrate the diversity and relevance of this approach: policing and stereotyping, communication accommodation (and nonaccommodation) by police officials, intergroup contact and communication interventions that seek to improve relations between the police and the public, and the role of intergroup communication in translating scientific evidence into police policy and practice. Finally, we provide a critical research agenda that includes an integrated model of intergroup communication and policing.
... In compromising, each party to the conflict sacrifices a portion of his or her solution, and none is left fully satisfied (Ronquillo et al., 2023). Further, Klimecki (2019) found that empathy and compassion, which are key components of emotional healing, are associated with higher readiness for reconciliation in conflict. There was, however, no sufficient evidence from the data to show that emotional healing had a significant effect on conflict management overall and on the other components of conflict management, including collaboration, accommodation, competition, and avoidance. ...
The study looked into the connection between servant leadership and interpersonal conflict management among pastors from two denominations in urban towns in Kenya. Servant leadership was considered the independent variable, while interpersonal conflict management styles were considered the dependent variable. Three objectives guided the study: to find out how emotional healing affects interpersonal conflict management, to determine how putting followers first affects interpersonal conflict, and to examine the effect of behaving ethically on interpersonal conflict among pastors in selected urban churches in Kenya. The study applied a pragmatic philosophical approach and used the convergent parallel mixed methods approach to collect data. The study calculated a sample size of 123 responses, of which 75 participants responded. Quantitative data was analyzed using STATA v17. Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationships between the constructs of the variables. Findings from the study indicated that servant leadership behaviours of emotional healing, putting followers first and behaving ethically had an effect on accommodating, compromising, and collaborating conflict management styles among pastors in selected urban churches in Kenya. The findings provided empirical strength to the practice of servant leadership behaviours for effective interpersonal conflict management. The researcher recommended that leadership training for pastors incorporate the practical applications of servant leadership behaviours for enhanced interpersonal conflict management among pastors.
... This includes multiple stakeholders with different interests, and knowledge and values associated with a variety of political and administrative contexts and levels [3]. The emergence and the resolution of conflicts both involve cognitive and emotional levels as well as an opinion level, which is why a multidimensional understanding can play a crucial role in conflict resolution [49]. ...
Sustainable development of the resource ‘land’ is increasingly being discussed with a focus on rural areas. Understanding is key to solving land use conflicts. It can lead to joint solutions and can thus enable sustainable development at a practical level. It goes beyond environmental consciousness, which is related to general issues, and instead aims to address concrete challenges in the context of sustainable development at an applicable level. ‘Understanding’ with regard to land use conflicts has not yet been defined in the literature. Based on this motivation, it is the aim of this study to create the construct of ‘understanding’ conceptually, to validate it empirically with structural equation modelling, and to demonstrate that understanding might be an important prerequisite for sustainable development. In this case, the focus is not on a general kind of understanding, but rather on specific aspects of understanding in relation to the agriculturally shaped environment in rural areas. The empirical data for the paper were collected by means of a large-scale population survey in Western Pomerania, Germany, a rural peripheral region characterized by typical land-use conflicts in predominantly rural areas. A tripartite division of the construct into cognitive, emotional, and opinion levels was derived theoretically. The construct is supported empirically and that it can be applied as an SDG indicator. Thus, the refined construct of understanding the agriculturally shaped environment can make a substantial contribution towards closing the knowledge/attitude-behavior gap.
... Extensive research has been conducted on intergroup empathy, including empathy between members of advantaged and disadvantaged groups (Cikara, 2015;Cikara et al., 2011;Cikara et al., 2014;Han, 2018;Klimecki, 2019;Levy et al., 2016;Xu et al., 2009;Zaki & Cikara, 2015). Results of this line of work show not only decreased empathy towards outgroup members but also counter-empathic responses such as feeling pleasure in response to outgroup members' pain, known as the schadenfreude (Cikara & Fiske, 2013;Heider, 1958;Ouwerkerk et al., 2018). ...
Intragroup empathy is vital for resilience. However, it is often impaired in advantaged-dominated environments when one adopts advantaged-group characteristics to climb the social ladder. The current work examines contextual factors that may affect intragroup empathy: the motivation behind adopting the advantaged-group characteristics, and negative encounters with members of the advantaged group. We hypothesized that coercively, versus willingly, adopting advantaged-group characteristics will increase intragroup empathy both when the outcomes are negative and positive. We further hypothesized that a negative encounter with an advantaged-group member would increase intragroup empathy, compared to no encounter. In three studies, Palestinian students in Israeli academia were assigned to read scripts depicting the academic experience of a Palestinian student adopting advantaged-group characteristics. We tested (a) the effects of motivation following a negative outcome ( N = 182); (b) the effects following a positive outcome ( N = 205); and (c) the interaction between a negative encounter with an advantaged-group member and motivation, and its effect on intragroup empathy ( N = 282). Intragroup empathy was higher in the coerced condition compared to the free-willing condition both for negative and positive outcomes. A negative encounter with an advantaged-group member increased intragroup empathy in the willing condition. By illuminating contextual variables that shape intragroup empathy, this research shows that impairment in intragroup empathy is not inevitable. This work may serve as a foundation for future interventions.
... Furthermore, the propensity to empathize with others, influenced by multiple factors and referred to as the empathy bias (Bloom, 2017), is notably contingent on the nature of the relationship. Individuals often exhibit greater empathy and a heightened inclination to provide support to members of their own group (e.g. de Waal & Preston, 2017;Klimecki, 2019). However, in our research, we did not consider the specific individuals involved in conflicts or broader contextual factors like power or relationship dynamics. ...
Empathy plays a crucial role in the workplace, associated with positive outcomes, including helping behavior and task performance. While most studies have treated empathy as a unidimensional and trait-like characteristic, empathy is best understood as a two-dimensional construct, encompassing stable and fluctuating aspects. Considering this conceptualization, our research explores the relationship between the two dimensions – affective and cognitive empathy – with well-being and prosocial behavior, both at the trait and state levels. We hypothesized that affective empathy is positively associated with fatigue, whereas cognitive empathy is positively related to provided support. Furthermore, we predicted that these relationships would be especially pronounced on days when employees witness conflicts in the workplace. Our results, drawn from two diary studies (Ns = 119 and 179), indicated that affective empathy was related to fatigue, and cognitive empathy was related to provided support on the trait level, supporting our hypotheses. However, the distinctions between the two empathy dimensions were less prominent at the state level, and these effects did not depend on observed conflicts. These findings suggest that affective and cognitive empathy have differential effects, emphasizing the need for balanced and beneficial utilization of empathy in both theoretical development and practical workplace contexts.
... Es sabido que una actitud responsable de las personas para cumplir con las medidas sanitarias preventivas está asociada a una interacción entre la percepción de riesgo, conductas de exposición y los valores prosociales (Christner et al., 2020;Heffner et al., 2021). De estos, el más significativo parece ser el valor de empatía, entendida como el proceso de compartir y comprender los estados emocionales de otra persona, y que se caracteriza por una respuesta afectiva, un proceso cognitivo de toma de perspectiva y mecanismos de regulación que permiten diferenciar los afectos propios de los ajenos (Klimecki, 2019). Passetti (2020) introdujo el concepto 'empatía forzada' para referirse a la necesidad que tienen los individuos de ser escuchados y validados durante las situaciones de emergencia. ...
Esta investigación buscaba describir las consecuencias físicas, psicológicas, sociales y académicas de los estudiantes universitarios durante el primer año de confinamiento, e identificar las principales estrategias de afrontamiento utilizadas. Siguiendo una metodología cualitativa, se entrevistó a 67 estudiantes universitarios procedentes de distintas regiones del país. Los resultados mostraron que hubo una aceptación inicial del confinamiento por parte de estudiantes, como medida sanitaria extrema necesaria para reducir los casos de contagio, pero que con el pasar del tiempo empezó a ser percibida como una experiencia terrible caracterizada por la pérdida de rutinas, falta de control y una permanente incertidumbre que terminó afectando distintos ámbitos de su funcionamiento. Para afrontar estas consecuencias, los estudiantes utilizaron diversas estrategias, principalmente aquellas centradas en la resolución activa de los problemas (mantener horarios fijos, procurar el contacto con personas significativas, implementar rutinas de actividad física y solicitar ayuda profesional, entre otras) y el desarrollo de una mayor autoconsciencia (técnicas de relajación, mindfulness y autocompasión, entre otras). Se discuten la relevancia e implicancias futuras de estos resultados.
... Stress, too, can be motivating in accomplishing tasks, removing oneself from misfortune when possible, and providing evolutionary benefits (Hoffman & Hercus 2000). Increased empathy for those who suffer can be a prosocial behavior that drives connection and understanding as well as decrease loneliness (Klimecki 2019, Konrath & Grynberg 2016, Batson & Ahmad 2009, with empathetic behavior connected with observing pain even being found in mice (Langford 2006). However, empathy may also lead to increased polarization (Breithaupt 2017) andcompetitive victimhood (Noor et al 2012). ...
We document definitions of and relationships between pain, stress, and suffering while also reflecting on our own diverse training and experiences. Recognizing a range of causes and interpretations, we differentiate between maladaptive and adaptive forms of pain, stress, and suffering. Measures and identifiers of pain often rely on quantifiable measures, while suffering demands a greater attention to perceptions of self-understanding. Engaging with pain, stress, and suffering means considering how the mind and brain work together in processing and articulating moments of physical agony, heightened anxiety, and unbridled grief, as well as the stories we tell ourselves about these experiences. Postulating Pain "All becoming and growing, all that guarantees the future, postulates pain." Friedrich Nietzsche P ain and suffering are an inherent part of the human experience. As such, humans have constantly searched for answers to explain suffering and turn pain into growth and meaning. Narratives and art depicting the human emotion of pain can evoke feelings of connection and empathy among individual hearts and minds as well as insights into the sublime as interpreted by Immanuel Kant, though suffering can also decrease quality of life. There are then both adaptive (beneficial) and maladaptive (adverse) behaviors that arise from pain and stress with suffering, which complicates the way we study and attempt to limit their negative effects on human well-being. Our own scholarship is motivated by our desire to limit maladaptive pain, stress, and suffering. We are siblings and scholars from seemingly disparate disciplines (one in humanities and one in neurobiology), yet we are both engaged in work to understand-and ultimately alleviate-various facets of pain and suffering. We currently work in two different laboratories at the same institution (Indiana University). Taylor works in a lab with mice and Claire works in a lab on storytelling. Our scholarship includes interpreting reactions to pain, stress, and suffering, both felt and observed, behavioral and aesthetic. Such observations provide further insights into understanding how the mind and the brain process pain and suffering. Scientists and humanities scholars examining pain, stress, and suffering act as both storytellers and data miners through their respective methodologies. In this article, we reflect on our academic training while also connecting varying interpretations of pain, stress, and suffering to explore the relationship between the three. Definitions of each category are important because they affect
... Given that cultivating positive other-regarding emotions is thought to be one of the mechanisms for inducing empathy towards individual subjects, which can generalize to favorable attitudes towards other members of the target group (Klimecki, 2019) and which is essential for effective intercultural communication (Mercer, 2016), further research exploring these links has been encouraged. In this light, Martínez-Otero Pérez (2011) raises the need to promote empathy in university curricula for the training of education professionals, placing special emphasis on the incorporation of the empathic intersubjective educational style in the instructional process. ...
The increasingly digital and multicultural 21st-century society requires future teachers to be prepared for the changes and challenges they may encounter. Not only language and digital competences, but critical-thinking and problem-solving skills are needed. Moreover, well developed socio-affective abilities, empathy among them, are also key when dealing with others. This is even more relevant when teachers are to work with a non-mainstream population, such as adult migrants with low literacy levels, and to design student-centered curricula or activities. Empathy is a multifaceted process involving, among others, perception, intellection, affect and other sensory aspects of the lived experience. It has been argued that the first-person perspective-taking involved in empathic engagement must necessarily involve rational computation and cognitively mediated processing. Training future teachers in the Pedagogy of Multiliteracies is a means to integrate multimodal digital instruction and aggregate cognitive as well as socio-emotional features to the education of future language teachers.
Method
A mixed-method pre-post study was conducted with 48 trainee teachers who participated in stand-alone digital multiliteracy interventions, in which they were encouraged to envisage themselves as future teachers of low-literate migrants. Policy documents such as the reference guide on Literacy and Second Language Learning for the Linguistic Integration of Adult Migrants, journal articles, audiovisual resources as well as examples of existing educational materials aimed at the target audience, were made available to them on an online platform. In two separate studies, trainees were encouraged to collaboratively produce two different multimodal outputs. The Revised Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy was administered before and after the intervention, subjecting the data obtained to quantitative analysis. Qualitative data was also collected to gain a better understanding of the affective and cognitive processes experienced by the participants.
Results
Simple statistical analysis coupled with the comparison of means was used to respond to the research questions. Statistical hypothesis testing, including correlations and non-parametric statistics were used to analyze the relationship between each of the factors within the RSEE and the participants, considering the different interventions applied. Non-parametric tests (U-Mann Whitney) were used to compare the differences between the levels of ethnocultural empathy of the participants in the two studies. Significant differences were found in Factor 3 (Empathy) and Factor 5 (Anxiety) between the groups and their post-intervention results, with a p value of 0.053 and 0.038, respectively. The effect size r was calculated, obtaining a size effect of 0.625 for Factor 3 (Empathy) and 0.674 for Factor 5 (Anxiety). These results indicate that the significant differences and the size effect between both groups are large. U-Mann Whitney non-parametric analysis also revealed gender differences in Factor 3 (Empathy), showing females higher levels than males. Effect size r analysis showed a large size effect of 0.708 for Factor 3 (Empathy). The findings pertaining to gender-related differences in empathy levels confirm the conclusions drawn by previous studies. When contrasting study 1 and 2, statistical differences were also shown after the intervention for the ‘Anxiety and Lack of Multicultural Self-efficacy’ factor. The qualitative data analysis was carried out with Atlas.ti v.8, in order to isolate and categorize the broader themes and the most significant explanatory quotes extracted from the participants’ records and interviews. The results reveal the learning strategies that each group of learners applied to successfully complete the task at hand, as well as the participants’ deployment of their critical thinking skills and the awakening of a sense of awareness of their own professional competence development process.
Conclusion
This study set out to compare how effective two digital multiliteracy interventions were in developing future language teachers’ ethnocultural empathy and cognitive abilities when appraising the educational needs of low-literacy migrants. Despite the small sample size, the study certainly adds to our understanding of the impact of multimodal tasks involving critical thinking skills on trainees’ cognitive and affective abilities. Besides, it expands the growing body of research that points to the desirability of embedding digitally-based content creation tasks in training curricula for future language teachers.
... Recent studies have provided some initial indications regarding the role of positive emotions, like hope and empathy, in eliciting and encouraging collective action tendencies (e.g., Klimecki, 2019;Wlodarczyk et al., 2017). However, there are only a few studies examining the effect of these emotions on participation of members of an advantaged group in SBCA and some show mixed findings (Sabucedo & Vilas, 2014;Wlodarczyk et al., 2017). ...
The present study explores the impact of nonviolent communication (NVC) intervention on advantaged group members’ actual participation in collective action on behalf of disadvantaged outgroups, also known as solidarity‐based collective action (SBCA). It also examines the mediating role of hope and empathy in this process. Using an experimental longitudinal field study in the context of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Jewish Israelis ( N = 220) were randomly assigned either to an NVC or to a control condition. Results indicated that, relative to the control, participants in the NVC condition showed an increased tendency to engage in activities that are considered part of SBCA 6 weeks after the intervention. Furthermore, the NVC intervention affected both hope and empathy by maintaining higher levels of hope 6 weeks after intervention and by increasing empathy immediately after intervention. Yet hope, but not empathy, mediated the effect of the NVC intervention on participation in SBCA. Theoretical and applicable implications are discussed.
... Compassion education is one of the approaches that can address the root causes of personal and societal issues that impact people's psychological and physiological wellbeing [8][9][10]. As evidenced by neuroscientists who study neuroplasticity, mental training such as mindfulness and compassion may result in transformative changes in the brain activity of individuals experiencing depression [11,12]. ...
College students experiencing psychological distress have significantly greater negative emotions than students who practice compassionate thinking. We have developed Eight Steps to Great Compassion (ESGC), an innovative brief and no-cost online video training program about how to increase compassion among busy and young adult university students. To examine the effectiveness and benefits of the ESGC, a single-group pre-test–post-test quantitative design with undergraduate university students (N = 92; Mage = 20.39) evaluated its effects. The results from the post-test showed that the ESGC had a significant positive impact on increased feelings of compassion towards oneself, compassion for others, and the sense of personal well-being from the pre-test. The analysis of the PERMA-Profiler subscales also reflected a statistically significant increase in overall well-being and health and a decrease in negative emotions and loneliness. From the Post-Survey Lesson Feedback, 88% of the participants reported significant positive changes in themselves and the way that they live due to the program. These findings appear to show important implications for improving healthy minds and reducing negative emotions among university students.
... In most contexts, empathy is linked to beneficial sociality; there is ample evidence about the prosocial aspects of empathy, including its role in conflict de-escalation ( [5,32,33]). Empathy or empathic concern is focused on the wellbeing of others and is a powerful effect to share the emotions of the unfortunate [4,34]. ...
In two studies, we introduce the concept of spontaneous side-taking (SST) to describe how people initially align themselves in a conflict. The effects of side-taking in established conflicts are well studied, such as empathetic engagement and polarization. However, there is less known about how people spontaneously choose sides in situations without prior allegiances. To study these neglected effects of SST, we use two-character narratives to present participants with new conflicts in which they have no initial vested interest. These short narratives describe acts of aggression and detail the victimization of one character by another. Through two studies, we find: (1) victim characters receive greater attention and are remembered better; (2) victim characters receive more empathy; (3) victim characters are more likely to be viewed as the authors of conflict narratives; (4) and that side-taking flexibility diminishes after the first side-taking choice. This last finding means that there is a tendency for SST to stick over time. Overall, these findings demonstrate how victimization triggers and sustains side-taking in narratives by enhancing memory of and empathy for the victim.
... Por otro lado, la resolución de conflictos tiene un impacto en la vida cotidiana de todos y, si se gestiona de forma incorrecta, puede acarrear problemas para todas las partes implicadas, según Klimecki (2019). Los conflictos que se presentan tienen el potencial de mermar la capacidad de aprendizaje tanto del alumno como del profesor, con los consiguientes problemas a largo plazo para ambos. ...
El objetivo del presente estudio fue conocer la relación de la gestión de conflictos y
la satisfacción laboral de los colaboradores de una municipalidad de Lambayeque,
2023. Siguió un tipo de investigación básica desde un nivel de investigación
correlacional basado en un enfoque cuantitativo, de acuerdo a un método
hipotético-deductivo y diseño no experimental, dado que no hubo manipulación
deliberada de las variables y transversalidad en la recolección de los datos. La
muestra estuvo constituida por 50 colaboradores de una municipalidad de
Lambayeque, elegidos mediante un muestreo no probabilístico de tipo censal. Los
resultados indicaron que hubo correlación estadísticamente significativa de la
gestión de conflictos (Rho=.659, p=.000) y sus dimensiones, control emocional
(Rho=.608, p=.000), competencia comunicativa (Rho=.608, p=.000) y evaluación
de resultados (Rho=.627, p=.000) con la satisfacción laboral. Concluyó que
mayores niveles de gestión de conflictos y sus dimensiones, control emocional,
competencias comunicativas y evaluación de resultados incidieron directamente en
altos niveles de satisfacción laboral de los colaboradores de una municipalidad de
Lambayeque, 2023.
... This outcome aligns with prior research, consistently emphasizing the positive impact of empathy on interpersonal dynamics (Day et al., 2012;Singh, 1997;Stanger et al., 2016;Swit, 2023). It underscores the pivotal role of empathy in fostering harmonious and cooperative social interactions (Klimecki, 2019;Levy & Bader, 2020;Schoeps et al., 2020). However, what distinguishes this study is its revelation of the mediating role of psychological resilience within this relationship. ...
This study examines the complex relationship between empathy, aggressive behavior, and psychological resilience. The aim of the research is to understand the psychological resilience and emotional balance of basketball players, with a particular focus on the roles of empathy and aggressive behaviors. The study's sample consists of 94 active basketball players competing in the Turkey Basketball 1st and 2nd Leagues. The data collection instruments employed include a short psychological resilience scale, an empathy scale in the sports context, and a scale for measuring aggression and anger in sports. The findings support the idea that empathy promotes positive interactions among individuals and reduces aggressive behavior (β =-.30, p < .05). Furthermore, a crucial discovery is that psychological resilience serves as a mediator in this relationship. A positive relationship is observed between psychological resilience and empathy (β = .17, p < .05), while a negative relationship exists between psychological resilience and both aggression and anger (β =-.57, p < .05). It is concluded that enhancing empathy skills among basketball players and providing support for psychological resilience can contribute to improved performance in competitive environments and the maintenance of emotional balance. Resumo: Este estudo examina a complexa relação entre empatia, comportamento agressivo e resiliência psicológica. O objetivo da investigação é compreender a resiliência psicológica e o equilíbrio emocional dos jogadores de basquetebol, com particular enfoque nos papéis da empatia e dos comportamentos agressivos. A amostra do estudo consiste em 94 jogadores de basquete ativos competindo na 1ª e 2ª Ligas de Basquete da Turquia. Os instrumentos de recolha de dados utilizados incluem uma escala curta de resiliência psicológica, uma escala de empatia no contexto desportivo e uma escala para medir agressividade e raiva no desporto. Os resultados apoiam a ideia de que a empatia promove interações positivas entre os indivíduos e reduz o comportamento agressivo (β =-0,30, p <0,05). Além disso, uma descoberta crucial é que a resiliência psicológica serve como mediadora nesta relação. Observa-se uma relação positiva entre resiliência psicológica e empatia (β = 0,17, p < 0,05), enquanto existe uma relação negativa entre resiliência psicológica e agressão e raiva (β =-0,57, p < 0,05). Conclui-se que o aprimoramento das habilidades de empatia entre os jogadores de basquetebol e o apoio à resiliência psicológica podem contribuir para a melhoria do desempenho em ambientes competitivos e para a manutenção do equilíbrio emocional.
... Conflict is an essential precursor to the development of children's cognition and logical abilities (Traverso et al., 2015). Many studies have investigated strategies for interpersonal conflicts and peaceful resolutions (Shen et al., 2018;Klimecki, 2019). Conflicts among young children are often regarded as isolated individual behaviors (Doppler-Bourassa et al., 2008), but (Hayes et al., 2017) considered they are more likely the by-products of social contexts. ...
This study explored the effects of peer interactions on kindergarten children’s construction of conservation and conflict resolution knowledge during storybook reading. Previous studies have identified that peer interactions can support the meaning-making processes of children in social relationships and problem-solving, but little is known about whether the interaction with mixed-age or more competent peers is more important in supporting knowledge construction. Sixty-four younger children in K2 and older children in K3 with similar socioeconomic backgrounds were recruited from a Montessori kindergarten in Kunming, China. An experimental design was applied to explore age group and conserver dominance effects on conservation and conflict resolution. Children were assigned randomly to eight groups in three 30-to-40-min intervention sessions. Each session had a different theme for the children to learn about conservation and conflict resolution concepts and a hands-on activity to practice and discuss. ANOVAs were performed to test group effects, while multiple regression analyses were conducted to explore individual variations in age and pre-test scores in predicting post-test scores. Conservation knowledge was significantly better among children who differed in age groups in the post-test, but differences were not found in conflict resolution knowledge. Groups balanced with equal conservers and non-conservers improved the best, suggesting that peer social interactions can facilitate conservation and conflict resolution construction. These results provide new insights for early childhood educators to support peer interactions and children’s development. Implications, limitations, and future research are discussed.
... This is surprising, especially for novice practitioners. A positive association between empathy and prosocial motivation has been widely described in the psychology literature (Klimecki, 2019 for a review), and it was previously observed in a partial correlation network based on a sample of nonpractitioners using the same experimental paradigm and stimuli (Fucci et al., 2021). A possible interpretation would be that the training followed by novices already induced some difference from the general population, in particular the fact that they had multiple opportunities to reflect on the difference between empathy and compassion. ...
Within western social psychology and neuroscience, compassion is described as being conditioned by cost-benefit appraisals, such as the attribution of responsibility for the causes of suffering. Buddhist traditions maintain the possibility of cultivating and embodying unconditioned and universal forms of compassion. Whereas a growing body of empirical literature suggests that Buddhist-inspired compassion-based programs foster prosociality and well-being in healthy and clinical populations, there is no evidence that such compassionate disposition toward others can become unconditioned from moral judgment. To address this question, we collected and integrated self-report and behavioral data from expert Buddhist practitioners and trained novices using a previously validated within-subject experiment that manipulates contextual information to influence moral judgment toward suffering others and a newly designed approach-avoidance task. We found that context manipulation impacted responsibility and blame attribution in both groups and that experts’ reported willingness to help was higher and less influenced by context, compared to novices. Partial correlation networks highlighted a negative relationship between blame attribution and willingness to help in novices, but not in expert practitioners. Self-reported willingness to help was correlated to reaction times when approaching suffering stimuli. Approach behavior was modulated by context in novice, but not in experts. This study provides initial evidence of a dissociation between moral attributions and prosocial attitude in expert Buddhist practitioners and challenges established evolutionary accounts of compassion in western psychology.
... A study about adolescent friendships found that adolescents who had more dispositional empathy were associated with more successful conflict management [25]. Similarly, empathy and compassion have been associated with higher readiness for reconciliation in intergroup conflict [26]. This paper contributes to the literature by showing that students can recognize the importance of empathy when managing conflict. ...
... However, emotion mentalization may more robustly foster prosocial actions than cognitive mentalization, because the activation of emotional mentalization primarily triggers affective representations of others, which closely aligns with the concept of "empathizing" [43]. Empathy can lead to a greater willingness to engage in positive intergroup interactions and to see members of other groups as individuals with their own unique experiences and perspectives [44,45]. This is particularly true for tasks such as forming social partnerships and minimizing relationship conflict [46,47]. ...
The present study investigates whether directing five- to six-year-old children’s attention to hypothetical resource recipients that included familiar and non-familiar people would affect their favoritism toward a familiar person, as reflected in how they allocated resources. In Experiment 1, we instructed participants to give one of several stickers to another person or keep all the stickers for themselves. Under the control conditions, participants more frequently gave stickers to friends than to non-friends. However, when asked about others’ emotions, they distributed stickers equally among friends and non-friends. Therefore, focusing on others’ thoughts reduced participants’ favoritism toward friends. Experiment 2 tested whether focusing on both emotional valences would affect favoritism toward a familiar person, as reflected in children’s resource distribution choices. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, except we asked participants about the other person’s emotional valence. When asked about others’ negative emotions, participants distributed the stickers equally between themselves and others. However, when asked about others’ positive emotions, they distributed more stickers to friends than to non-friends. Neither others’ emotional valence nor group status affected the perceived intensity of their emotion or the participant’s emotional state. These results suggest that children’s favoritism toward friends can be reduced by encouraging them to think about others’ negative emotional states.
... Empathy refers to a variety of cognitive and affective responses, including sharing and understanding, toward others' experiences (Pfattheicher et al., 2020). Previous studies have demonstrated a positive association between empathy and prosocial behaviors, such as caring for others (Moudatsou et al., 2020;Klimecki et al., 2016), as well as a reduction in conflict and stigma (Batson et al., 1997;Klimecki, 2019). Recently, Pfattheicher et al. (2020) also demonstrated that inducing empathy for the vulnerable people could promote taking preventative measures during the Covid-19 pandemic. ...
In the summer of 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the historic Roe v. Wade ruling, prompting various states to put forth ballot measures regarding state-level abortion rights. While earlier studies have established associations between demographics, such as religious beliefs and political ideologies, and attitudes toward abortion, the current research delves into the role of psychological traits such as empathy, locus of control, and need for cognition. A sample of 294 U.S. adults was obtained via Amazon Mechanical Turk, and participants were asked to provide their attitudes on seven abortion scenarios. They also responded to scales measuring empathy toward the pregnant woman and the unborn, locus of control, and need for cognition. Principal Component Analysis divided abortion attitudes into two categories: traumatic abortions (e.g., pregnancies due to rape) and elective abortions (e.g., the woman does not want the child anymore). After controlling for religious belief and political ideology, the study found psychological factors accounted for substantial variation in abortion attitudes. Notably, empathy toward the pregnant woman correlated positively with abortion support across both categories, while empathy toward the unborn revealed an inverse relationship. An internal locus of control was positively linked to support for both types of abortions. Conversely, external locus of control and need for cognition only positively correlated with attitudes toward elective abortion, showing no association with traumatic abortion attitudes. Collectively, these findings underscore the significant and unique role psychological factors play in shaping public attitudes toward abortion. Implications for research and practice were discussed.
... 35 The firsthand experience of the horrors of war can influence the future practice of medical students, fostering increased empathy and resilience, but also leading to burnout, compassion fatigue, and emotional distress. [36][37][38][39] Training in conflict zones may shift medical students' focus towards specializations in social justice, community health, and policy advocacy, 20,40 and provide invaluable experience in treating war-related injuries. 20 Alternatively, it may direct them into emergency medicine, mental health, or trauma surgery, where their personal knowledge of psychological trauma and war-related ailments is extremely helpful but might eventually restrict access to specialist care. ...
Medical education has always been a vital aspect of both health and educational systems, largely because of its significant role in enhancing health outcomes and its capacity to transform existing governance structures.1, 2Students pursuing medical education form the cornerstone of these systems globally.3Their involvement in medical education extends well beyond the improvement of patient care on an individual level. It has far-reaching impacts, influencing various societal aspects ranging from local to international spheres,2,4including policy implementation, leadership roles, and advocacy efforts.5-6Particularly during critical times,such as pandemics, medical students have played pivotal roles in promoting public health measures, combating misinformation, and enhancing vaccine acceptance.7-9Moreover, medical education and the medical field in general are fundamental to research and innovation,10,11driving advancements in medical science and technology.
... However, while the ASE programme was associated with improvements in a number of youth social outcomes, in contrast to the proposed hypothesis, programme participation was not associated with changes in either students' peer relations or (relational or overt) aggression over time. Notably, these findings conflict with those reported in previous studies, which have typically indicated that empathy, and participation in empathy-based programmes, are associated with reduced delinquent or aggressive behaviours and enhanced group relations (Björkqvist et al., 2000;Eisenberg et al., 2010;Klimecki, 2019;Malti et al., 2016). Nonetheless, some emerging evidence from other intervention-based research has indicated that programmes which aim to reduce aggressive behaviour appear to produce stronger effects when implemented with younger children (Van Ryzin & Roseth, 2019;Yeager et al., 2015). ...
... In a tangible way, the moment remains a source of collective empathy for Moslawi communities. Empathy is considered a significant predictor of helping behavior and reconciliatory attitudes (Klimecki 2019). Strengthening such attitudes has implications for the long-term process of healing from ISIS trauma and building communal wellbeing together. ...
Populations in conflict contexts often live for extended periods of time in displacement or under occupation. Both have profound consequences for navigating daily wellbeing. Drawing on narrative interviews (n = 8) with participants who lived through the ISIS (Islamic State) occupation of Mosul in 2014–2017, we seek to highlight narratives of wellbeing- and illbeing-emerging from their experiences. Our case study suggests that multiple persistent threats forced a renegotiation of ways to sustain key elements of wellbeing. Our findings suggest that intentionally propagated distrust led to reduced interaction, while insecurity and fear diminished personal freedoms, causing recurring shocks requiring constant adaptation. Decreasing the size of the core social unit helped families manage risks and resources when facing existential threats, while the diversification of interpersonal and communal relations created space for moments of normalcy. Choices made in order to stay safe and sane under such exceptional circumstances include complex relational choices, such as breaking familial ties with loved ones. Our research expands on the positive and negative impacts of relations on wellbeing and deepens our understanding of how wellbeing is navigated in contexts of forced departure—environments from which people often flee to seek refuge elsewhere.
... In line with this body of research, a theoretical review has pointed out another emotion regulation strategy 19 , namely compassion training, as a new potential avenue to attenuate tense relationships 20 . Indeed, although there are different conceptualizations of compassion 21 , researchers agree that compassion and its training involve a relational aspect at its core 22 . ...
Evidence-based interventions to favor more harmonious interactions in difficult relationships remain scarce. This study examined whether compassion training may have beneficial effects in an ongoing tense relationship with a disliked person, by reducing schadenfreude toward them and increasing felt interpersonal closeness. 108 participants were assigned to one of three 5-week trainings in a longitudinal randomized controlled study: compassion training, reappraisal training (emotion regulation control condition), or Italian language training (neutral active control condition). The disliked person was not targeted during the trainings to test potential transfer effects. Misfortune scenarios and a measure of interpersonal closeness were used to test whether schadenfreude and closeness feelings toward a disliked person changed from pre- to post-training, across different experimental and control groups. Only compassion and reappraisal trainees reported a decrease of schadenfreude feelings toward the disliked person compared to their pre-training ratings, no changes were observed in the Italian language training. Importantly, feelings of closeness toward the disliked person increased in the compassion training group compared to the other two groups. This increase of closeness feelings could be a central mechanism for improving social interactions. These transfer effects open new perspectives concerning emotion regulation interventions in conflict resolution.
... Empathy refers to a variety of cognitive and affective responses, including sharing and understanding, towards others' experiences (Pfattheicher et al., 2020). Previous studies have demonstrated a positive association between empathy and prosocial behaviors, such as caring for others (Moudatsou et al., 2020;Klimecki et al., 2016), as well as a reduction in conflict and stigma (Batson et al., 1997;Klimecki, 2019). Recently, Pfattheicher et al. (2020) also demonstrated that inducing empathy for the vulnerable people could promote taking preventative measures during the Covid-19 pandemic. ...
In the summer of 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the historic Roe v. Wade ruling, prompting various states to put forth ballot measures regarding state-level abortion rights. While earlier studies have established associations between demographics, such as religious beliefs and political ideologies, and attitudes towards abortion, the current research delves into the influence of psychological traits such as empathy, locus of control, and need for cognition on attitudes towards diverse abortion scenarios. A sample of 294 U.S. adults was obtained via Amazon Mechanical Turk, and participants were asked to provide their attitudes on seven abortion scenarios. They also responded to scales measuring empathy towards the pregnant woman and the unborn, locus of control, and need for cognition. Principal Component Analysis divided abortion attitudes into two categories: traumatic abortions (e.g., pregnancies due to rape) and elective abortions (e.g., the woman does not want the child anymore). After controlling for religious belief and political ideology, the study found psychological factors accounted for substantial variation in abortion attitudes. Notably, empathy towards the pregnant woman correlated positively with abortion support across both categories, while empathy towards the unborn revealed an inverse relationship. An internal locus of control was positively linked to support for both types of abortions. Conversely, external locus of control and need for cognition only positively correlated with attitudes towards elective abortion, showing no association with traumatic abortion attitudes. Collectively, these findings underscore the significant role psychological factors play in shaping public attitudes towards abortion.
Regular testing using rapid antigen lateral flow tests (LFTs) was an important prevention strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, falsification of home LFTs was a concern. Using a large quota-representative sample of adults ( n = 1295) in England, we conducted a vignette survey consisting of four hypothetical scenarios of LFT falsification behaviours (FBs) to examine whether prosocial personality traits were associated with attitudes towards and intentions for falsifying home LFTs during the pandemic. Results show that higher levels of affective empathy for people vulnerable to COVID-19 and Honesty-Humility from the HEXACO model of Personality are associated with non-acceptability of LFT FBs and intentions to not engage with them. However, affective empathy explained more of the variation compared to the facet-level measures of Honesty-Humility for both attitude and intention. Public health communications aimed at encouraging personal protective behaviours should consider the role of empathy and prosocial messages.
Mental perspectives can sometimes be changed by psychological interventions. For instance, when applied in the context of intergroup conflicts, interventions, such as the paradoxical thinking intervention, may unfreeze ingrained negative outgroup attitudes and thereby promote progress toward peacemaking. Yet, at present, the evaluation of interventions’ impact relies almost exclusively on self-reported and behavioral measures that are informative, but are also prone to social desirability and self-presentational biases. In the present study, magnetoencephalography tracked neural alignment, before and after the paradoxical thinking intervention, during the processing of auditory narratives over the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and thereby evaluated the intervention’s potential to change individuals’ (n = 80) mental perspectives over the conflict. Compared to baseline, the conflict-targeted intervention yielded a specific significant increased neural alignment in the posterior superior temporal sulcus while processing incongruent as well as congruent political narratives of the conflict. This may be interpreted as a possible change in perspective over the conflict. The results and their interpretations are discussed in view of the critical added value of neuroimaging when assessing interventions to potentially reveal changes in mental perspectives or the way in which they are processed, even in contexts of entrenched resistance to reconsider one’s ideological stance.
Limited information exists on the potential link between levels of mindfulness and cognitive performance in seniors with low education. This cross-sectional study aims to explore the association between mindfulness levels and cognitive performance in older adults with different years of education. Participants were grouped by education levels and assessed for cognitive performance (ACE-R; Digit Span test), levels of mindfulness (Langer Mindfulness Scale-21), and depressive symptoms (Geriatric Depression Scale-15). Group comparisons, correlations, and linear and logistic regression analyses were conducted ( p < .05). Cognitive performance, mindfulness levels, and depressive symptoms differed between groups, and correlations were found between mindfulness levels, ACE-R, and Digit Span scores. After controlling for education, the association between mindfulness levels and ACE-R performance remained significant. Logistic regression revealed that higher education and mindfulness levels increased the likelihood of scoring above the ACE-R cut-off. This study underscores the association between levels of mindfulness and cognitive performance in older adults.
This investigation into compassion and empathy highlights their crucial functions in social cognition, which influence engagements in various settings. Cultural dimensions underscore the significance of human connection by highlighting the societal influences that shape empathetic behaviours. The correlation between compassion, empathy, and mental health underscores their capacity to cultivate resilience. They make valuable contributions to communication and conflict resolution within interpersonal relationships. Efficacious interventions provide opportunities for individual development. Ethical considerations emphasize the importance of maintaining a delicate equilibrium between self-care and empathy. Ongoing technological and neurological research promises an expansion of applications. Cultivating kindness and compassion revolutionizes societies, ushering in an era of more significant global interdependence where mutual comprehension underpins all human engagements.
Dramatic events can evoke feelings of compassion, fear, or threat, and can affect public opinion regarding controversial issues. Such an event was the drowning of 3-year-old Alan Kurdi, a Syrian boy whose body washed up on a Turkish shore, and was photographed, producing an iconic image that was seen worldwide. The image evoked empathy and compassion that neuroscience and psychological research associate with a motivation to help. This article examines the impact of this event on four different aspects of attitudes toward immigration. The timing of the European Social Survey in Portugal allowed us to use this tragic event as a natural experiment. Our results suggest that Kurdi’s drowning had a significant effect on only two sentiments, but no such impact was detected on other attitudes. The results show that the event did not change the respondents’ opinion regarding the possible negative consequences of immigration on the host country’s economy, crime level, or culture, nor did it change their perception of the skills required by immigrants. On the other hand, the empathy induced by the tragic event increased their willingness to have a less restrictive immigration policy and their openness to having close social relationships with immigrants, although these changes were short-lived.
As a prosocial response towards others’ suffering exposed on social media, online compassion played a critical role in the pandemic crisis. Against the backdrop of the pandemic and the over-use of social media, it may be difficult to elicit and maintain online compassion. This study examines the unique challenges faced by online compassion towards social media news in the first weave of pandemic. The theoretical frame of cultural psychology of semiotic mediation was adopted to highlight online compassion as a fluid bordering process characterized by the mechanisms of distinction, affectivization and transformation. An empirical interview study with Chinese undergraduate students was also included to show the dynamic evolving process of online compassion from December, 2019 to June 2020. The results revealed a hierarchical semiotic regulation process integrating both the pre-reflective affective level and the higher cognitive level, leading to different paths of online compassion evolving into distress or acts in real life.
Drawing upon a comprehensive review of scholarly literature and theoretical frameworks, this chapter investigates the strategic role of training in preparing employees for change, enhancing their capabilities, and fostering a positive organizational culture. The chapter delves into key constituents of human resource training, including training needs assessment, design and delivery, evaluation of training effectiveness, and the role of training in change management. By critically analyzing these elements, it provides valuable insights into the importance of human resource training in supporting successful organizational change initiatives. The chapter concludes by discussing the implications for practice and identifies potential areas for future research. Through its rigorous and evidence-based approach, this chapter contributes to the existing body of knowledge in the field and offers practical guidance to organizations seeking to optimize their training efforts in the context of organizational change.
This article investigates the influence of a novel construct, Empathic Resonance and its three dimensions—helping behavior, empathic concern, and perspective-taking—on street-level bureaucrats’ discretion. Mental health factors’ effect on bureaucrats’ behavior during implementation and enforcement through the moderating role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) perception were also examined. Approximately 1,214 bureaucrats were surveyed about various aspects of Empathic Resonance, including its dimensions, discretion, mental health, and AI perception. Empathic Resonance, characterized by the ability to understand, assist, and maintain positive relationships with clients, and regulate and comprehend one’s own emotions and those of others, significantly impacted discretion, and mental health among street-level bureaucrats. Analyses included the contributions of helping behavior, empathic concern, and perspective-taking to Empathic Resonance, and showed that certain mental health factors, including depression, anxiety, and stress, negatively influenced bureaucrats’ discretion; this relationship was intensified by their views regarding AI. These findings highlight the importance of Empathic Resonance, its dimensions, mental health, and AI perception in understanding and enhancing discretion among street-level bureaucrats and emphasize the need for further research.
У статті розкрито соціально-психологічні основи розвитку конфліктологічної компетентності фахівців медичної галузі в умовах професійної взаємодії. Проведено теоретико-методологічний аналіз системного, субʼєктно-діяльнісного, особистісно-компетентнісного, інтегративного підходів до вивчення проблеми конфліктологічної компетентності фахівців медичної галузі в умовах професійної взаємодії, у контексті яких така компетентність розглядається з точки зору цілісності, структурності, ієрархічності, динамічності і гуманістичності. Враховуючі зазначені підходи та узагальнене визначення поняття компетентності у науковому психологічному просторі, конфліктологічну компетентність фахівців медичної галузі в умовах професійної взаємодії розглянуто як регулятивну підструктуру їх професіоналізму і професійної діяльності, як інтегральну якість особистості і інтегральну когнітивну здатність, яка визначає темп формування та напрямки розвитку ситуації конфлікту, форми поведінки у конфліктній взаємодії і результати конфлікту, та має взаємозв’язок із соціально-перцептивною, ауто-психологічною, соціально-психологічною, адміністративно-правовою компетентностями, формування кожної з яких сприяє розвитку конфліктологічної компетентності фахівця-медика загалом. Розроблено інтегровану соціально-психологічну програму розвитку конфліктологічної компетентності фахівців медичної галузі в умовах професійної взаємодії, яка включала інформаційний блок (настановний та активізуючий модулі) щодо надання інформації про конфлікти, конфліктні форми взаємодії та ефективні стратегії поведінки у конфлікті в умовах професійної взаємодії фахівців-медиків; рефлексивний блок (практичний та асоціативний модулі) щодо актуалізації рефлексивних процесів у проблемно-конфліктних ситуаціях професійної медичної взаємодії, моделювання конфліктних ситуацій і групових рефлексивних процедур з метою накопичення метакогнітивного досвіду; розвивальний блок (стратегічний та моніторинговий модулі) щодо підвищення конфліктостійкості, формування навичок довільної саморегуляції психоемоційного і функціонального станів фахівців-медиків в умовах професійної взаємодії та оцінки ефективності програмних заходів. Дієвість розробленої програми доведена статистично значущим зростанням показників саморегуляції і самоконтролю, планування і прогнозування, мобілізації та адаптації у конфлікті; покращенням психоемоційного та функціонального станів; орієнтації на пошук ресурсів саморозвитку у вирішенні проблеми, особистісної зрілості, соціального інтересу та самодетермінації, рефлексивності та емпатії. Підвищилась конфліктостійкість фахівців-медиків, що сприяло розширенню просторово-часових меж сприйняття конфліктної проблеми в умовах професійної взаємодії, умінню ефективно використовувати конструктивні технології та стратегії запобігання конфлікту та його вирішення. Ключові слова:фахівці медичної галузі, професійна взаємодія, конфлікт, конфліктологічна компетентість,розвиток конфліктологічної компетентності.
Using 3 experiments, the authors explored the role of perspective-taking in debiasing social thought. In the 1st 2 experiments, perspective-taking was contrasted with stereotype suppression as a possible strategy for achieving stereotype control. In Experiment 1, perspective-taking decreased stereotypic biases on both a conscious and a nonconscious task. In Experiment 2, perspective-taking led to both decreased stereotyping and increased overlap between representations of the self and representations of the elderly, suggesting activation and application of the self-concept in judgments of the elderly. In Experiment 3, perspective-taking reduced evidence of in-group bias in the minimal group paradigm by increasing evaluations of the out-group. The role of self–other overlap in producing prosocial outcomes and the separation of the conscious, explicit effects from the nonconscious, implicit effects of perspective-taking are discussed.
Introduction
Subjectively experienced cognitive decline in older adults is an indicator of increased risk for dementia and is also associated with increased levels of anxiety symptoms. As anxiety is itself emerging as a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia, the primary question of the present study is whether an 8-week mindfulness-based intervention can significantly reduce anxiety symptoms in patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD). The secondary questions pertain to whether such changes extend to other domains of psychological, social, and biological functioning (including cognition, self-regulation, lifestyle, well-being and quality of life, sleep, and selected blood-based biomarkers) associated with mental health, older age, and risk for dementia.
Methods
SCD-Well is a multicenter, observer-blinded, randomized, controlled, superiority trial, which is part of the Horizon 2020 European Union-funded “Medit-Ageing” project. SCD-Well compares an 8-week mindfulness- and compassion-based intervention specifically adapted for older adults with SCD with a validated 8-week health education program. Participants were recruited from memory clinics in four European sites (Cologne, Germany; London, United Kingdom; Barcelona, Spain; and Lyon, France) and randomized with a 1:1 allocation, stratified by site.
Results
The primary outcome, change in anxiety symptoms, and secondary outcomes reflecting psychological, cognitive, social, and biological functioning are assessed at baseline, postintervention, and 4 months after the end of the intervention.
Discussion
The study will provide evidence on whether a mindfulness-based intervention can effect changes in anxiety and other risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia in older adults with SCD and will inform the establishment of intervention strategies targeted at improving mental health in older adults.
Introduction
The Age-Well clinical trial is an ongoing monocentric, randomized, controlled trial aiming to assess an 18-month preventive meditation-based intervention directly targeting the attentional and emotional dimensions of aging to promote mental health and well-being in elderly people.
Methods
One hundred thirty-seven cognitively unimpaired older adults are randomized to either an 18-month meditation-based intervention, a structurally matched foreign language training, or a passive control arm. The impact of the intervention and underlying mechanisms are assessed with detailed cognitive, behavioral, biological, neuroimaging and sleep examinations.
Results
Recruitment began in late 2016 and ended in May 2018. The interventions are ongoing and will be completed by early 2020.
Discussion
This is the first trial addressing the emotional and cognitive dimension of aging with a long-term nonpharmacological approach and using comprehensive assessments to investigate the mechanisms. Results are expected to foster the development of preventive strategies reducing the negative impact of mental conditions and disorders.
Although anger and aggression can have wide-ranging consequences for social interactions, there is sparse knowledge as to which brain activations underlie the feelings of anger and the regulation of related punishment behaviors. To address these issues, we studied brain activity while participants played an economic interaction paradigm called Inequality Game (IG). The current study confirms that the IG elicits anger through the competitive behavior of an unfair (versus fair) other and promotes punishment behavior. Critically, when participants see the face of the unfair other, self-reported anger is parametrically related to activations in temporal areas and amygdala - regions typically associated with mentalizing and emotion processing, respectively. During anger provocation, activations in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area important for regulating emotions, predicted the inhibition of later punishment behavior. When participants subsequently engaged in behavioral decisions for the unfair versus fair other, increased activations were observed in regions involved in behavioral adjustment and social cognition, comprising posterior cingulate cortex, temporal cortex, and precuneus. These data point to a distinction of brain activations related to angry feelings and the control of subsequent behavioral choices. Furthermore, they show a contribution of prefrontal control mechanisms during anger provocation to the inhibition of later punishment.
Psycho-affective states or traits such as stress, depression, anxiety and neuroticism are known to affect sleep, cognition and mental health and well-being in aging populations and to be associated with increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Mental training for stress reduction and emotional and attentional regulation through meditation practice might help reduce these adverse factors. So far, studies on the impact of meditation practice on brain and cognition in aging are scarce and have limitations but the findings are encouraging, showing a positive effect of meditation training on cognition, especially on attention and memory, and on brain structure and function especially in frontal and limbic structures and insula. In line with this, we showed in a pilot study that gray matter volume and/or glucose metabolism was higher in six older adult expert meditators compared to 67 age-matched controls in the prefrontal, anterior and posterior cingulate cortex, insula and temporo-parietal junction. These preliminary findings are important in the context of reserve and brain maintenance as they suggest that long-term meditation practice might help preserve brain structure and function from progressive age-related decline. Further studies are needed to confirm these results with larger samples and in randomized controlled trials and to investigate the mechanisms underlying these meditation-related effects. The European Commission-funded project Silver Santé Study will address these challenges by studying 316 older adults including 30 expert meditators and 286 meditation-naïve participants (either cognitively normal or with subjective cognitive decline). Two randomized controlled trials will be conducted to assess the effects of 2-month and 18-month meditation, English learning or health education training programs (versus a passive control) on behavioral, sleep, blood sampling and neuroimaging measures. This European research initiative illustrates the progressive awareness of the benefit of such non-pharmacological approaches in the prevention of dementia and the relevance of taking into account the psycho-affective dimension in endeavoring to improve mental health and well-being of older adults.
Do liberals and conservatives differ in their empathy toward others? This question has been difficult to resolve due to methodological constraints and common use of ideologically biased targets. To more adequately address this question, we examined how much empathy liberals and conservatives want to feel, how much empathy they actually feel, and how willing they are to help others. We used targets that are equivalent in the degree to which liberals and conservatives identify with, by setting either liberals, conservatives, or ideologically neutral members as social targets. To support the generalizability of our findings, we conducted the study in the United States, Israel, and Germany. We found that, on average and across samples, liberals wanted to feel more empathy and experienced more empathy than conservatives did. Liberals were also more willing to help others than conservatives were, in the United States and Germany, but not in Israel. In addition, across samples, both liberals and conservatives wanted to feel less empathy toward outgroup members than toward ingroup members or members of a nonpolitical group.
Meditation has been advocated as a mental practice designed to reduce suffering and increase virtuous behavior. Although it has been previously linked to altruistic acts, its ability to reduce aggression and related retributive behaviors remains open to question. Here we report on an experiment in which participants were randomly assigned to a mindfulness meditation or active control condition three-weeks prior to facing a real-time provocation known to evoke aggression. Participants’ capacities for executive control were also assessed subsequent to training. Results showed that three-weeks of daily meditation practice substantially reduced aggressive behavior even in the absence of any enhanced executive control capabilities. These results suggest that meditation attenuates aggression through direct reductions in motives to cause harm to others.
Mindfulness training has been shown to have a beneficial impact on emotions and perceptions. We examined whether it would reduce negative emotions and perceptions and lead to increased support for compromise in the context of prolonged intergroup conflict. We also examined the effect of an intervention that combines mindfulness with cognitive reappraisal, a method that enhances emotion regulation. Israeli students participated in a mindfulness course that either began in the winter semester (mindfulness group) or in the spring semester (control group). After the termination of the mindfulness course, all participants were invited to a laboratory session in which they were randomly assigned to either receive or not a short cognitive reappraisal training. The results showed that after being presented with anger-inducing information related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, participants in the mindfulness condition only, the reappraisal condition only or the combined group (mindfulness and reappraisal), were more supportive of conciliatory policies compared to participants that received no mindfulness nor reappraisal training. The increased support for conciliatory policies was mediated by a decrease in negative emotions in all groups, while in the mindfulness group, it was also mediated by reduction in negative perceptions. The combined impact of mindfulness and reappraisal did not reveal any additional effect.
The identifiable victim effect (IVE) refers to individuals’ tendency to offer greater help to specific, identifiable victims than to anonymous, statistical victims. A random-effects meta-analysis was conducted to determine the overall weighted effect of IVE. Overall, 41 studies were included. Results indicated an overall significant yet modest IVE (r = .05). In addition, findings showed that IVE appears reliable mainly when there is a single identified or a single unidentified victim, and/or when study characteristics include elements of the following: a photographed child suffering from poverty, bearing little responsibility for the need, and/or associated with monetary requests. The implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.
In the prevention and resolution of conflicts in social contexts, an important step is to understand how different emotions and empathic traits are linked to punishment behaviors. Unfortunately, few paradigms exist to study these phenomena. Here, we developed the Inequality Game (IG) as an economic and verbal interaction paradigm in which participants are faced with an “unfair other” as opposed to a “fair other” and subsequently have the opportunity to engage in a range of social behaviors. These social behaviors include cooperative or competitive economic choices and nice or derogatory verbal behavior toward the unfair and fair other. Participants could thus engage in punishment or forgiveness behavior toward the unfair other as well as in cooperative or aggressive behavior toward the fair other. We validated the IG through multimodal measures comprising the assessment of personality traits, emotions (by means of facial expressions and self-reports), arousal (by means of skin conductance responses), physical effort (force exertion), and behavioral reactions. Second, we examined the influence of emotions and empathy-related traits on punishment behavior. With regard to emotions, we observed a positive relation between malicious joy and punishment behavior. This result highlights the role of reward-related mechanisms in favoring punishment behavior. In addition, different empathic traits had opposing effects on antisocial behavior. Whereas personal distress predicted aggressive verbal behavior, perspective taking and empathic concern predicted a reduction in punishment behavior. Empathic traits also modulated emotional experience and person evaluations, such that perspective taking was related to more positive affect (less frowning and more smiling) and a more favorable evaluation of the unfair other. The current data validate the IG, reveal that malicious joy is positively related to punishment behavior, and show that different types of empathic traits can have opposing effects on antisocial behavior as well as on related emotions and person evaluations.
Attempted to reconcile the conflicting data on the relationship of negative mood state to altruism. Whereas some studies have shown that negative mood leads to increases in altruistic action, others have shown the reverse. It was hypothesized that the inconsistency of these results was due to differences in the ages and consequent levels of socialization of the Ss employed in the earlier studies. In order to test the hypothesis, a total of 100 Ss from 3 age groups (6-8, 10-12, and 15-18 yrs) were asked to think of either depressing or neutral events and were subsequently given the opportunity to be privately generous. Consistent with predictions from the negative state relief model of altruism, the youngest, least socialized Ss were somewhat less generous in the negative mood condition, but this relationship progressively reversed itself until in the oldest, most socialized group, the negative mood Ss were significantly more generous than neutral mood controls. Data support a hedonistic conception of altruism that views adult benevolence as self-gratification. It is suggested that the reward character of benevolence derives from the socialization experience. (44 ref)
Imagine yourself facing someone who might attack your group-if you could control your emotions, how would you want to feel toward that person? We argue that the goals people have for their group dictate how they want to feel on behalf of their group. We further propose that these group-based emotional preferences, in turn, influence how people actually feel as group members and how they react to political events. We conducted 9 studies to test our proposed model. In a pilot study, we showed that political ideology is related to how people want to feel toward outgroup members, even when controlling for how they want to feel in general, or how they actually feel toward outgroup members. In Studies A1-A3, we demonstrated that group-based emotional preferences are linked to emotional experience and that both mediate links between political ideology and political reactions. In Study A4, we showed that political ideology influences emotional preferences, emotional experiences and political reactions. Next, in Studies B1-B4, we demonstrated that changing group-based emotional preferences can shape group-based emotional experiences and consequently influence political reactions. By suggesting that group-based emotions are motivated, our findings point to new directions for advancing conflict resolution. (PsycINFO Database Record
The relationship between positive emotions and implicit racial prejudice is unclear. Interventions using positive emotions to reduce racial bias have been found wanting, while other research shows that positive affect can sometimes exacerbate implicit prejudice. Nevertheless, loving-kindness meditation (LKM) has shown some promise as a method of reducing bias despite increasing a broad range of positive emotions. A randomised control trial (n = 69) showed that a short-term induction of LKM decreased automatic processing, increased controlled processing, and was sufficient to reduce implicit prejudice towards the target’s racial group but not towards a group untargeted by the meditation. Furthermore, the reduction in bias was shown to be mediated by other-regarding positive emotions alongside increased control and decreased automaticity on the IAT. Non-other-regarding positive emotions conversely showed no correlation with bias. The study is the first to show that a short-term positive emotional induction can reduce racial prejudice, and aids the understanding of how positive emotions functionally differentiate in affecting bias.
Although mind perception is a basic part of social interaction, people often dehumanize others by denying them mental states. Many theories suggest that dehumanization happens in order to facilitate aggression or account for past immorality. We suggest a novel motivation for dehumanization: to avoid affective costs. We show that dehumanization of stigmatized targets (e.g., drug addicts) relative to nonstigmatized targets is strongest for those who are motivated to avoid emotional exhaustion. In Experiment 1, participants anticipated more exhaustion from helping, and attributed less mind to, a stigmatized target and anticipated exhaustion partially mediated the influence of stigma on mind attribution. Experiment 2 manipulated anticipated exhaustion prior to an empathy plea and revealed that the influence of stigma on mind attribution was only present when people anticipated high levels of emotional exhaustion.
Values reflect how people want to experience the world; emotions reflect how people actually experience the world. Therefore, we propose that across cultures people desire emotions that are consistent with their values. Whereas prior research focused on the desirability of specific affective states or one or two target emotions, we offer a broader account of desired emotions. After reporting initial evidence for the potential causal effects of values on desired emotions in a preliminary study (N = 200), we tested the predictions of our proposed model in eight samples (N = 2,328) from distinct world cultural regions. Across cultural samples, we found that people who endorsed values of self-transcendence (e.g., benevolence) wanted to feel more empathy and compassion; people who endorsed values of self-enhancement (e.g., power) wanted to feel more anger and pride; people who endorsed values of openness to change (e.g., self-direction) wanted to feel more interest and excitement; and people who endorsed values of conservation (e.g., tradition) wanted to feel more calmness and less fear. These patterns were independent of differences in emotional experience. We discuss the implications of our value-based account of desired emotions for understanding emotion regulation, culture, and other individual differences.
Examined the prediction of adults' situational and dispositional empathy-related responses from measures of emotionality (emotional intensity and positive and negative affect) and regulation. A multimethod approach including self-reported, facial, and heart rate (HR) responses was used to assess situational vicarious emotional responding; Ss' (and sometimes friends') reports were used to assess the dispositional characteristics. In general, dispositional sympathy, personal distress, and perspective taking exhibited different, conceptually logical patterns of association with indexes of emotionality and regulation. The relations of situational measures of vicarious emotional responding to dispositional emotionality and regulation varied somewhat by type of measure and gender. Findings for facial and HR (for men) measures were primarily for the more evocative empathy-inducing stimulus. In general, the findings provided support for the role of individual differences in emotionality and regulation in empathy-related responding.
Current approaches to humanizing members of an outgroup in contexts marked by protracted intergroup conflict see mixed success. In both Study 1, conducted on a random sample of Israeli Jews (
N
= 103), and Study 2, conducted on a nationally diverse sample of Israeli Jews (
N
= 670), we experimentally test the effect of a unique approach to humanizing the outgroup based on empathy. Instead of requiring individuals to express empathy for outgroup suffering they might have caused, this approach requires an expression of empathy for suffering unrelated to the conflict between the groups. Results suggest that such an expression of empathy from one group member toward the other group can lead to “reciprocal empathy” which facilitates a greater willingness to accept the humanity of all members of the other group.
Emotion regulation research has primarily focused on techniques that attenuate or modulate the impact of emotional stimuli. Recent evidence suggests that this mode regulation can be problematic in the context of regulation of emotion elicited by the suffering of others, resulting in reduced emotional connectedness. Here we investigated the effects of an alternative emotion regulation technique based on the up-regulation of positive affect via Compassion-meditation on experiential and neural affective responses to depictions of individuals in distress, and compared these with the established emotion regulation strategy of Reappraisal. Using fMRI, we scanned 15 expert practitioners of Compassion-meditation either passively viewing, or using Compassion-meditation or Reappraisal to modulate their emotional reactions to film clips depicting people in distress. Both strategies effectively, but differentially regulated experienced affect, with Compassion primarily increasing positive and Reappraisal primarily decreasing negative affect. Imaging results showed that Compassion, relative to both passive-viewing and Reappraisal increased activation in regions involved in affiliation, positive affect and reward processing including ventral striatum and medial OFC. This network was shown to be active prior to stimulus presentation, suggesting that the regulatory mechanism of Compassion is the stimulus-independent endogenous generation of positive affect.
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Research has shown that mindfulness can positively affect peoples’ lives in a number of ways, including relying less on previously established associations. We focused on the impact of mindfulness on implicit age and racial bias as measured by implicit association tests (IATs). Participants listened to either a mindfulness or a control audio and then completed the race and age IATs. Mindfulness meditation caused an increase in state mindfulness and a decrease in implicit race and age bias. Analyses using the Quad Model showed that this reduction was due to weaker automatically activated associations on the IATs.
The goal of the current research was to examine how discrete positive intergroup emotional phenomena affect conflict-related attitudes in different contexts of intractable conflict. We hypothesized that empathy, but not hope would be negatively associated with aggressive attitudes during escalation, while hope, but not empathy would be associated with conciliatory attitudes during de-escalation. In study 1 we examined our hypotheses within a correlational design in an emotion-inducing context, while in study 2 a two-wave survey was conducted during real-life events within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; a peace summit as well as a war. Both studies supported our hypotheses, thus indicating the unique, yet complimentary, contribution of each of the two emotional phenomena to the advancement of peace.
Empathy features a tension between automaticity and context dependency. On the one hand, people often take on each other's internal states reflexively and outside of awareness. On the other hand, empathy shifts with characteristics of empathizers and situations. These 2 characteristics of empathy can be reconciled by acknowledging the key role of motivation in driving people to avoid or approach engagement with others' emotions. In particular, at least 3 phenomena-suffering, material costs, and interference with competition-motivate people to avoid empathy, and at least 3 phenomena-positive affect, affiliation, and social desirability-motivate them to approach empathy. Would-be empathizers carry out these motives through regulatory strategies including situation selection, attentional modulation, and appraisal, which alter the course of empathic episodes. Interdisciplinary evidence highlights the motivated nature of empathy, and a motivated model holds wide-ranging implications for basic theory, models of psychiatric illness, and intervention efforts to maximize empathy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
As humans we are a highly social species: in order to coordinate our joint actions and assure successful communication, we use language skills to explicitly convey information to each other, and social abilities such as empathy or perspective taking to infer another person’s emotions and mental state. The human cognitive capacity to draw inferences about other peoples’ beliefs, intentions and thoughts has been termed mentalizing, theory of mind or cognitive perspective taking. This capacity makes it possible, for instance, to understand that people may have views that differ from our own. Conversely, the capacity to share the feelings of others is called empathy. Empathy makes it possible to resonate with others’ positive and negative feelings alike — we can thus feel happy when we vicariously share the joy of others and we can share the experience of suffering when we empathize with someone in pain. Importantly, in empathy one feels with someone, but one does not confuse oneself with the other; that is, one still knows that the emotion one resonates with is the emotion of another. If this self–other distinction is not present, we speak of emotion contagion, a precursor of empathy that is already present in babies.
We discuss four potential ways to reduce conflict between groups: consideration of future consequences, independent leadership, outgroup empathy, and coordination. We review relevant empirical findings for each method and discuss how each can be used to promote intergroup cooperation.
© 2008 Association for Psychological Science.
Leadership is usually a mandatory component of business education. Here we used the model of transformational leadership, and operationalized leadership consistently with the Values in Action Leadership scale. Social dominance orientation is a hierarchical belief-system that attributes social rank, ranging from high to low. Business students have been found to have higher levels of Social Dominance Orientation (SDO. Accordingly, 371 working business students were sampled to establish the relationship between SDO and transformational leadership capacity. The mediational impact of compassion was assessed. This study found high levels of competitive and hierarchical world conceptualization was significantly and sometimes strongly negatively linked to these constructs (Martin et al., 2014). We also discuss preliminary results of an interpersonal compassion-based intervention. The research suggests the opportunity to broaden psychological well-being of employees with impactful interventions, since negative behaviors within an institution can raise healthcare costs and lower job performance.
There is increasing evidence that meditation-based training promotes healthy ageing across many dimensions. This review summarizes the existing knowledge on the effects of meditation training on healthy ageing in the domains of emotions, cognition (with a special emphasis on attentional processes), and the preservation of related brain structures. Although evidence so far is promising, more rigorous randomized controlled studies with active control groups and long-term follow-up in older people are needed. We outline how these challenges can be addressed in future studies using the example of an ongoing project, Medit-Ageing (public name: Silver Santé Study), including two independent randomized controlled trials (RCT) as well as one cross-sectional study with meditation experts.
Deficiencies in empathic functioning are considered a core characteristic of violent behavior. Enhancing empathy in aggressive populations may thus represent a promising intervention target. Hence, the aims of the present work were two-fold: First, we wanted to thoroughly assess empathic competencies and second, we aimed to investigate effects of an empathy induction on experienced empathy levels and prosocial behavior in a sample of violent offenders relative to matched controls. Empathy was assessed using both self-report as well as objective measures. For the empathy induction, participants were presented with empathy inducing and control videos. To assess the effects of the empathy induction on behavior, participants played a dictator game indicative of prosocial behavior after every video. Violent offenders showed no systematic impairment in empathy measures. Despite lower shares in the dictator game across conditions, the empathy induction led to a substantial increase in prosocial behavior in both groups. Importantly, high psychopathy scores were distinctively associated with lower self-reported empathy levels, an attenuated affective responsiveness to the empathy induction, and less altruistic behavior. Treatment programs aiming to improve empathy should take individual characteristics into account and may be applied to distinctive subgroups rather than to violent offenders per se.
Recent research on empathy in humans and other mammals seeks to dissociate emotional and cognitive empathy. These forms, however, remain interconnected in evolution, across species and at the level of neural mechanisms. New data have facilitated the development of empathy models such as the perception-action model (PAM) and mirror-neuron theories. According to the PAM, the emotional states of others are understood through personal, embodied representations that allow empathy and accuracy to increase based on the observer's past experiences. In this Review, we discuss the latest evidence from studies carried out across a wide range of species, including studies on yawn contagion, consolation, aid-giving and contagious physiological affect, and we summarize neuroscientific data on representations related to another's state.
What role does the experience of feeling what you think others are feeling - often known as 'empathy' - have in moral deliberation and moral action? Empathy has many fans and there is abundant evidence that it can motivate prosocial behavior. However, empathy is narrow in its focus, rendering it innumerate and subject to bias. It can motivate cruelty and aggression and lead to burnout and exhaustion. Compassion is distinct from empathy in its neural instantiation and its behavioral consequences and is a better prod to moral action, particularly in the modern world we live in.
Significance
Intergroup conflicts are among the world’s most imminent problems, particularly with the shift of battlefields into the heart of civilian locations and the participation of increasingly younger adolescents in intergroup conflict. We found that Israeli and Palestinian adolescents reared in a climate of long-standing strife shut down the brain’s automatic response to outgroup pain. This neural modulation characterized a top-down process superimposed upon an automatic response to the pain of all and was sensitive to hostile behavior toward outgroup, uncompromising worldviews, and brain-to-brain synchrony among group members. Findings pinpoint adolescents’ sociocognitive top-down processes as targets for intervention.
What are the determinants of altruism? While economists assume that altruism is mainly driven by fairness norms, social psychologists consider empathy to be a key motivator for altruistic behavior. To unite these two theories, we conducted an experiment in which we compared behavior in a standard economic game that assesses altruism (the so-called Dictator Game) with a Dictator Game in which participants’ behavioral choices were preceded either by an empathy induction or by a control condition without empathy induction. The results of this within-subject manipulation show that the empathy induction substantially increased altruistic behavior. Moreover, the increase in experienced empathy predicted over 40% of the increase in sharing behavior. These data extend standard economic theories that altruism is based on fairness considerations, by showing that empathic feelings can be a key motivator for altruistic behavior in economic interactions.
To facilitate a multidimensional approach to empathy the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) includes 4 subscales: Perspective-Taking (PT) Fantasy (FS) Empathic Concern (EC) and Personal Distress (PD). The aim of the present study was to establish the convergent and discriminant validity of these 4 subscales. Hypothesized relationships among the IRI subscales between the subscales and measures of other psychological constructs (social functioning self-esteem emotionality and sensitivity to others) and between the subscales and extant empathy measures were examined. Study subjects included 677 male and 667 female students enrolled in undergraduate psychology classes at the University of Texas. The IRI scales not only exhibited the predicted relationships among themselves but also were related in the expected manner to other measures. Higher PT scores were consistently associated with better social functioning and higher self-esteem; in contrast Fantasy scores were unrelated to these 2 characteristics. High EC scores were positively associated with shyness and anxiety but negatively linked to egotism. The most substantial relationships in the study involved the PD scale. PD scores were strongly linked with low self-esteem and poor interpersonal functioning as well as a constellation of vulnerability uncertainty and fearfulness. These findings support a multidimensional approach to empathy by providing evidence that the 4 qualities tapped by the IRI are indeed separate constructs each related in specific ways to other psychological measures.
Intergroup empathy--feeling empathy for a person or persons on the basis of group memberships--has been, until lately, relatively neglected by researchers and its mechanisms are poorly understood. What is well established is that people typically display a group bias, such that they more readily have empathy for the pain and suffering of ingroup members than they do for outgroup members. I review current research that attempts to answer four main questions about intergroup empathy: (a) what is the role of empathy in prejudice and prejudice reduction? (b) what are the causes and consequences of counter-empathy? (c) how do mimicry and the mirror neuron system play a role? (d) how does the brain produce intergroup empathy? This review draws mainly from studies in social psychology, developmental psychology, and social neuroscience, reflecting a variety of behavioral and neuroscience measures to examine the interplay between prejudice, empathy, counter-empathy, and mimicry, as well as the brain regions that underlie these processes.
In this chapter, we discuss the role of empathy as the main precursor for prosocial behavior, taking perspectives that span from social and developmental psychology to social neuroscience. We begin by introducing compassion fatigue in caregivers as a form of pathological altruism. We move on to introduce such relevant concepts as empathy, compassion, empathic concern, and distress; we then review relevant empirical findings from social and developmental psychology and social neuroscience. Finally, we propose a new integrative model that suggests that the term compassion fatigue should be replaced by the term empathic distress fatigue to more accurately account for symptoms of withdrawal and burnout. We conclude by outlining potential ways to circumvent the downside of too much empathy.
Perhaps the most important dimension of cultural difference in social behaviour, across the diverse cultures of the world, is the relative emphasis on individualism v. collectivism. In individualist cultures, most people’s social behaviour is largely determined by personal goals, attitudes, and values of collectivities (families, co-workers, fellow countrymen). In collectivist cultures, most people’s social behaviour is largely determined by goals, attitudes, and values that are shared with some collectivity (group of persons).