Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2010 Jun-Jul;106(2-3):115-28. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2010.01.002. Epub 2010 Mar 3.
Individuals often feel more empathy toward members of their own social groups than toward members of other social groups. However, individual factors contributing to this empathy bias remain largely unexplored among children. This study examined intergroup empathic processing among 94 children (mean age=8.74years, SD=1.76) assigned to novel color groups. After 1week in their group, children were interviewed to assess their ingroup identification and trait levels of social anxiety. Subsequently, a social threat was simulated, and children's feelings of situational distress and empathy bias for others who experienced the same threat were assessed. Findings indicated that, among children who reported more social anxiety and situational distress, those with a stronger ingroup identity displayed more empathy bias favoring their ingroup. Given that empathy is an important contributor to prosocial behavior, implications for children's intergroup relations are discussed.
个体通常对自己所属社会群体的成员比对其他社会群体的成员更具同理心。然而，个体因素对这种同理心偏差的影响在儿童中仍在很大程度上未被探索。本研究通过对 94 名儿童（平均年龄=8.74 岁，标准差=1.76）进行新的颜色分组，来研究群体间的同理心处理。在分组一周后，通过访谈评估儿童的内群体认同和特质水平的社交焦虑。随后，模拟社会威胁，评估儿童对经历同样威胁的他人的情境痛苦和同理心偏差。研究结果表明，在报告更多社交焦虑和情境痛苦的儿童中，那些内群体认同感更强的儿童表现出更强的同理心偏差，有利于他们的内群体。鉴于同理心是亲社会行为的一个重要贡献，讨论了这对儿童群体关系的影响。
