Smith-Flores Alexis S, Bonamy Gabriel J, Powell Lindsey J
Department of Psychology, University of California, La Jolla, California, USA.
Child Dev. 2025 Jul-Aug;96(4):1290-1305. doi: 10.1111/cdev.14242. Epub 2025 Apr 4.
Children's evaluations of empathizers were examined using vignette-based tasks (N = 159 4- to 7-year-old U.S. children, 82 girls, 52% White) between March 2023 and March 2024. Children typically evaluated empathizers positively compared to less empathic others. They rated empathic responses as more appropriate, selected empathizers as nicer, and inferred more positive relationships between empathizers and the targets of empathy. However, when empathy was contrasted with helping behavior, or directed toward an immoral actor, evaluations of empathy were more negative. Older children weighed helping and empathy more equally and shifted their evaluations more when considering responses to immoral acts. These results show children use empathy in their social evaluations, and contextual influences on these evaluations strengthen with age.
在2023年3月至2024年3月期间，使用基于 vignette 的任务（N = 159 名4至7岁的美国儿童，82名女孩，52%为白人）对儿童对具有同理心者的评价进行了研究。与缺乏同理心的其他人相比，儿童通常对具有同理心者给予积极评价。他们将同理心反应评为更合适，选择具有同理心者为更友善，并推断出具有同理心者与同理心目标之间有更积极的关系。然而，当将同理心与帮助行为进行对比，或针对不道德行为者时，对同理心的评价则更为负面。年龄较大的儿童在帮助和同理心之间的权衡更为均衡，并且在考虑对不道德行为的反应时，他们的评价变化更大。这些结果表明，儿童在社会评价中运用同理心，并且随着年龄的增长，情境对这些评价的影响会增强。
