Helping Behavior and the Transfer of Empathy

Summary

High school students who had been pretested on the Mehrabian and Epstein measure of empathy were shown a brief videotaped presentation designed to elicit empathic arousal for a particular group of children (mentally retarded or crippled). Each individual was subsequently given an opportunity to help a recipient group which was identified as either (a) the same group of children who had been previously described in the presentation or (b) a different group. Individuals in the control group were shown a presentation of an affectively-neutral topic prior to the opportunity to help. Highly empathic adolescents were found to be more helpful than their relatively less empathic counterparts. Moreover, the findings indicated that empathy for a particular target, once aroused, may “transfer” and subsequently enhance prosocial behaviors enacted for recipients who may not have served as the original source of the individual's concern.