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Empathy, Altruism, and Group Identification.

Kengo Miyazono1,2, Kiichi Inarimori1,2

  • 1Graduate School of Humanities and Human Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan.

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|December 31, 2021
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Group identification is key to understanding how empathy drives helping behavior. This research proposes a new view where helping is both altruistic individually and egoistic at the group level.

Keywords:
altruismempathic emotionempathygroup identificationself-other merging

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Area of Science:

  • Social Psychology
  • Behavioral Science

Background:

  • Empathic emotion is known to influence helping behavior.
  • The precise mechanisms linking empathy to helping, especially within group contexts, require further clarification.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of group identification in mediating empathic emotion and its behavioral outcomes.
  • To test the self-other merging hypothesis (SMH) as an explanation for empathy-induced helping behavior.
  • To propose a new framework for understanding the altruistic and egoistic dimensions of helping behavior.

Main Methods:

  • The study focuses on theoretical arguments and interpretation of existing experimental findings.
  • It examines the self-other merging hypothesis (SMH) through the lens of group identification.
  • Behavioral adequacy and psychological plausibility of the group identification interpretation are assessed.

Main Results:

  • Group identification is identified as a crucial factor in the process where empathic emotion leads to helping behavior.
  • The self-other merging hypothesis (SMH) is effectively interpreted through the concept of group identification.
  • The group identification interpretation of SMH is found to be both behaviorally adequate and psychologically plausible.

Conclusions:

  • Empathy-induced helping behavior is best understood through the mechanism of group identification.
  • The traditional egoism/altruism dichotomy is insufficient for describing empathy-induced helping behavior.
  • A novel taxonomy is proposed, categorizing empathy-induced helping behavior as individually altruistic and group-level egoistic.