Empathy and Universal Values Explicated by the Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

• Research reports that empathy is on the decline in present-day society together with an increasing trend in self-enhancing values. Based on the empathy-altruism hypothesis we investigated whether these constructs are interlinked, by analyzing the relationships between emotional and cognitive empathy and 10 universal values. In the first study, using a middle-aged US sample, the results showed that empathy was strongly and positively related to altruistic values and negatively to self-enhancing values in a pattern which aligned with the empathy-altruism hypothesis. In a second confirmation study, these findings were replicated and extended, while also controlling for the Big Five personality traits, to discount that empathy is only captured by basic personality. Only emotional empathy, not cognitive empathy, accounted for up to 18% additional variance in altruistic values, which further confirmed the emphasis on feelings, as postulated by the empathy-altruism hypothesis.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Socialpsykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Social Psychology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

empathy

personality traits

values

empathy-altruism hypothesis

Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience

Kognitiv neurovetenskap och filosofi

Psychology

Empathy

empathy-altruism hypothesis

personality traits

values

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)