Empathy and attitudes: can feeling for a member of a stigmatized group improve feelings toward the group?
Results of 3 experiments suggest that feeling empathy for a member of a stigmatized group can improve attitudes toward the group as a whole. In Experiments 1 and 2, inducing empathy for a young woman with AIDS (Experiment 1) or a homeless man (Experiment 2) led to more positive attitudes toward people with AIDS or toward the homeless, respectively. Experiment 3 tested possible limits of the empathy-attitude effect by inducing empathy toward a member of a highly stigmatized group, convicted murderers, and measuring attitudes toward this group immediately and then 1-2 weeks later. Results provided only weak evidence of improved attitudes toward murderers immediately but strong evidence of improved attitudes 1-2 weeks later.
Batson
C D
CD
Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence 66045-2160, USA.
Polycarpou
M P
MP
Harmon-Jones
E
E
Imhoff
H J
HJ
Mitchener
E C
EC
Bednar
L L
LL
Klein
T R
TR
Highberger
L
L
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001290:Attitude; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006679:HIV Seropositivity; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008913:Minority Groups; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D011287:Prejudice; D011329:Prisoners; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013997:Time Factors