Agreeableness, empathy, and helping: a person x situation perspective.
This research program explored links among prosocial motives, empathy, and helping behavior. Preliminary work found significant relations among components of self-reported empathy and personality (N = 223). In Study 1, the authors examined the generality of prosocial behavior across situations and group memberships of victims (N = 622). In Study 2, empathic focus and the victim's outgroup status were experimentally manipulated (N = 87). Study 3 (N = 245) replicated and extended Study 2 by collecting measures of prosocial emotions before helping. In Study 4 (N = 244), empathic focus and cost of helping as predictors of helping behavior were experimentally manipulated. Overall, prosocial motivation is linked to (a) Agreeableness as a dimension of personality, (b) proximal prosocial cognition and motives, and (c) helping behavior across a range of situations and victims. In persons low in prosocial motivation, when costs of helping are high, efforts to induce empathy situationally can undermine prosocial behavior.
Graziano
William G
WG
Department of Psychological Sciences, Purdue University, IN 47907-2081, USA. graziano@purdue.edu
Habashi
Meara M
MM
Sheese
Brad E
BE
Tobin
Renée M
RM
D000328:Adult; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D010551:Personality; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012919:Social Behavior; D012928:Social Desirability; D012933:Social Identification