Empathy and universal values explicated by the empathy-altruism hypothesis.

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Moral Psychology

Background:

• Societal trends indicate a decline in empathy.
• There is a concurrent rise in self-enhancing values.
• The empathy-altruism hypothesis suggests a link between empathy and altruism.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between emotional and cognitive empathy and universal values.
• To test the empathy-altruism hypothesis in contemporary society.
• To determine if empathy's link to values is independent of basic personality traits.

Main Methods:

• Two studies were conducted using a middle-aged U.S. sample.
• Participants completed measures of emotional and cognitive empathy and 10 universal values.
• The second study controlled for the Big Five personality traits.

Main Results:

• Empathy was positively correlated with altruistic values and negatively with self-enhancing values.
• Emotional empathy, but not cognitive empathy, uniquely predicted altruistic values.
• Emotional empathy accounted for up to 18% of the variance in altruistic values.

Conclusions:

• The findings support the empathy-altruism hypothesis, particularly the role of emotional empathy.
• Emotional empathy is a significant predictor of altruistic values, independent of personality.
• The study highlights the importance of feelings in driving altruistic behavior.