Empathy is a stable predictor of compassionate emotions independent of an attribution of responsibility manipulation

ABSTRACT The goal of the present research was to investigate if individual differences in empathy and personal distress were stable predictors of compassionate emotions and whether these emotions, in turn, mediate the effect of attribution on prosocial propensity. We formulated four hypotheses to be...

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Veröffentlicht in:Universitas psychologica 2017-01, Vol.16 (1), p.40-49
Hauptverfasser: Rabelo, André, Ronaldo Pilati, Ronaldo Pilati
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:ABSTRACT The goal of the present research was to investigate if individual differences in empathy and personal distress were stable predictors of compassionate emotions and whether these emotions, in turn, mediate the effect of attribution on prosocial propensity. We formulated four hypotheses to be tested concerning direct and indirect effects between the variables in our model. 627 participants, mainly female (N = 408), were randomly assigned to one of two conditions in which we manipulated the attribution of responsibility of a target person (uncontrollability x controllability). Our results corroborated totally or partially all four hypotheses, indicating that empathy was a stable predictor of compassionate emotions and that these emotions mediated the effect of attribution on prosocial propensity. Notably, we found that empathy was an even stronger predictor of compassionate emotions compared to the attribution that participants made. We found evidence corroborating the assumption that these prosocial individual differences measures can predict the tendency to actually experience compassionate emotions in different situations. Thus, we conclude that the comprehension of prosocial decision-making and attribution processes underlying prosocial situations must take into account individual differences as antecedents of compassionate emotions.
ISSN:1657-9267
2011-2777
DOI:10.11144/Javeriana.upsy16-1.espc