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The influence of empathic concern on prosocial behavior in children

Amanda Williams1, Kelly O'Driscoll1, Chris Moore1

  • 1Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University Halifax, NS, Canada.

Frontiers in Psychology
|May 27, 2014
PubMed

Insights

Children

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Social Psychology

Background:

  • Empathic distress, a response to another's suffering, is theorized to influence prosocial behavior.
  • Understanding the nuances of empathy in children is crucial for comprehending their social development and altruistic tendencies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of empathic distress on children's prosocial behavior in a resource allocation context.
  • To differentiate the effects of empathic concern versus personal distress on sharing behavior.

Main Methods:

  • Two studies involving children aged 3 to 6 years.
  • Emotion induction through videos depicting distress (control) versus neutral scenarios.
  • A sticker sharing task assessing prosocial behavior in advantageous inequity (AI) and disadvantageous inequity (DI) trials.

Main Results:

  • Children exposed to empathic distress showed increased prosocial behavior, sharing more in AI trials and less in DI trials.
  • Prosocial behavior correlated with perceived protagonist distress, not self-reported distress, indicating empathic concern's role.
  • Results were consistent across 3-year-olds and 5-6-year-olds.

Conclusions:

  • Empathic concern, rather than personal distress, significantly drives prosocial behavior in children's resource allocation.
  • Early childhood interventions can leverage empathic responses to foster altruism.
  • This research highlights the developmental trajectory of empathy and its behavioral outcomes.

Keywords:
childrenempathyprosocial behavior

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