Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53113, Bonn, Germany.
Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 8;12(1):18951. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-23776-8.
Empathy enables human beings to understand and share the internal states of others. Studies show that empathy for pain is higher for in-group compared to out-group members. This might be driven by attitudes and biases towards out-groups. In a between subject design, N = 621 participants filled in questionnaires measuring xenophobia and trait empathy and were presented with photos of suffering individuals either from the in-group or an out-group, which had to be rated with respect to negative affect and the willingness to help the depicted persons. Results do not show more compassion with members of the in-group in general, but a negative effect of xenophobia on state empathy in the out-group condition. Additional moderation analyses show that this effect is less evident in presence of high trait empathy scores. Our results highlight the importance of empathy trainings to attenuate the effects of xenophobic attitudes on social cohabitation in our increasingly polarized and culturally diverse societies.
同理心使人类能够理解和分享他人的内心状态。研究表明，对于同群体成员的同理心比对外群体成员的同理心更高。这可能是由对外群体的态度和偏见驱动的。在一项被试间设计中，N=621 名参与者填写了测量仇外心理和特质同理心的问卷，并被呈现了来自同群体或外群体的遭受痛苦的个体的照片，这些照片必须根据负面情绪和帮助所描绘的人的意愿进行评分。结果并没有表明一般来说对同群体成员更有同情心，而是仇外心理对外群体条件下的状态同理心有负面影响。额外的调节分析表明，在特质同理心得分较高的情况下，这种影响不太明显。我们的研究结果强调了同理心培训的重要性，以减轻仇外态度对外在日益极化和文化多样化的社会中的社会共存的影响。
