Empathic concern promotes social support-seeking: A cross-cultural study

Previous research has suggested that empathic concern may affect cultural differences in social support-seeking. However, neither the mechanisms through which empathic concern promotes support-seeking nor the explanations for cultural differences in empathic concern are clear. This study attempted to address these questions by conducting three studies in Japan and the United States. The results showed that Japanese participants reported having lower trait-empathic concern and seeking less social support in dealing with stress than European Americans. Study 1 found that trait-empathic concern mediated the cultural differences in support-seeking by increasing beliefs about others' prosocial willingness. Using a controlled set of stressful scenarios, Study 2 replicated the results of Study 1. Additionally, Study 2 showed that Japanese participants reported greater endorsement of the causal repressive suffering construal than European Americans, partly accounting for cultural differences in trait-empathic concern. Using an experimental design, Study 3 showed that primed empathic concern increased support-seeking in coping with follow-up stress across cultures. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of empathic concern in support-seeking and cultural differences in empathic concern. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).