Sympathy and altruism in response to disasters.
Canadian students provided ratings of the degree of sympathy they felt for those involved in each of 20 world disasters. Playing the role of taxpayer, they also apportioned monies from a disaster relief fund to assist in such emergencies. A single dimension, Culpability, was found to underlie the sympathy ratings. Sympathy was related to giving aid only in the case of female subjects. Women also expressed greater sympathy and recommended more financial aid than did men.
Russell
G W
GW
Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
Mentzel
R K
RK
D000328:Adult; D000533:Altruism; D001290:Attitude; D004190:Disasters; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D005380:Financing, Government; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male