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Some researchers suggest that altruism operates on empathy. Empathy is the capacity to understand another person’s perspective, to feel what he or she feels. An empathetic person makes an emotional connection with others and feels compelled to help (Batson, 1991). Empathy can be expressed in several ways, including cognitive, affective, and motor. 
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Related Experiment Video

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Observational Fear as a Model of Affective Empathy in Mice
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Does empathy predict altruism in the wild?

Richard A I Bethlehem1, Carrie Allison1, Emma M van Andel1

  • 1a Department of Psychiatry, Autism Research Centre , University of Cambridge , Cambridge , UK.

Social Neuroscience
|October 30, 2016
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Empathy traits predict real-world altruistic behavior. People with more empathic traits are more likely to help others in everyday situations, supporting the link between empathy and morality.

Keywords:
Empathyaltruismautismreal-lifesocial behavior

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Area of Science:

  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Behavioral Science

Background:

  • Altruistic behavior is often theorized to be driven by empathy.
  • Previous experimental studies on empathy and altruism are often limited by laboratory settings lacking real-world applicability.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if empathy traits predict altruistic behavior in a naturalistic, real-world setting.
  • To examine the correlation between dispositional empathy and helping behavior outside controlled environments.

Main Methods:

  • A public situation was staged to elicit helping behavior.
  • Participants who helped or did not help were subsequently assessed for empathic traits.
  • Empathic traits were measured in individuals exhibiting altruistic actions versus those who did not.

Main Results:

  • A higher number of empathic traits significantly predicted altruistic behavior.
  • Empathy was identified as a positive predictor of helping in a real-life context.
  • The study found a significant correlation between empathy and real-world altruism.

Conclusions:

  • Empathy is a significant predictor of altruistic actions in real-world scenarios.
  • The findings support the hypothesis that empathy drives moral behavior.
  • This research bridges laboratory findings with naturalistic observations of human altruism.