An Investigation of the Divergences and Convergences of Trait Empathy across Two Cultures

Jami, Parvaneh Yaghoubi; Mansouri, Behzad; Thoma, Stephen J.; Han, Hyemin

doi:10.31234/osf.io/7rmu6

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…For example, in some western cultures like the United States, it is culturally normative to define oneself as independent from others (i.e., an individualistic culture), whereas in other cultures it is culturally normative to define yourself in terms of your relationships with other people (i.e., a collectivist culture; Markus & Kitayama, 1991). People from collectivist cultures are higher in trait empathy, prosocial behavior, empathic concern, and perspective taking (Chopik et al, 2017;Yaghoubi Jami et al, 2019). Thus, although uncertain, the effects of empathy on the interpretation of everyday rules may differ for persons from individualistic versus collectivist cultures.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathy influences the interpretation of whether others have violated everyday indeterminate rules.

LaCosse¹,

Quintanilla²

2021

Law and Human Behavior

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Objective: People encounter institutional rules in many settings of their lives-from schools to workplaces, from commercial places to public spaces. Often these everyday rules are indeterminate, requiring people who apply them to use their own discretion. Psychological processes help explain how lay people decide whether others have violated these everyday rules. Hypothesis: We predicted that when lay people empathize with others, they are less likely to decide that the people they empathize with violated everyday indeterminate rules. Method: We performed two correlational studies (Studies 1 and 2) and two experiments (Studies 3 and 4) using MTurk. We asked participants to read 3 dilemmas involving indeterminate institutional rules (Studies 1-3) or one dilemma (Study 4) and decide whether people violated such rules. Results: Greater empathy for people in these dilemmas was associated with a lower likelihood of deciding that rules were violated-even when controlling for the perceived harmfulness of the infraction-regardless of whether empathy was independently rated in explanations provided by lay people about their decisions (Study 1; N = 725; 51% female; 76.8% White), measured in the form of self-reported empathic concern and inclusion-of-self-in-other (Study 2; N = 1,159; 58% female; 78.9% White), or manipulated based upon whether a person transgressed a rule for selfish versus altruistic reasons (Studies 3; N = 1,073; 53% female; 77.7% White). Moreover, when we manipulated both empathy (selfish vs. altruistic transgression) and rule indeterminacy by altering whether the rule was silent about potential exceptions (indeterminate rule) versus absolutely rejected all exceptions (determinate rule), the likelihood of deciding a rule was violated was lowest when the rule was indeterminate and transgressed for altruistic reasons (Study 4; N = 239; 42% female; 77.0% White). Conclusions: Overall, results reveal a robust effect of empathy on how lay people resolve rule indeterminacy in everyday life, which may foster or frustrate law and public policy, and has implications for the resilience of institutions. Public Significance StatementFour studies suggest that empathy for people who transgress everyday institutional rules may promote institutional change and resilience. By understanding how lay people interpret these everyday indeterminate rules, researchers and experts may better understand and predict how people and institutions will administer rules in unexpected or changing circumstances, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and volatile social environments.

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Section: Limitations and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empathy influences the interpretation of whether others have violated everyday indeterminate rules.

LaCosse¹,

Quintanilla²

2021

Law and Human Behavior

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“…The current study differs from previous studies in three ways. First, culture is a multidimensional construct ( Jami et al, 2018 ); nevertheless, in previous Western–Asian cross-cultural studies of self-report empathy, the participant culture was identified only according to a single aspect, such as, nationality (e.g., Kaelber and Schwartz, 2014 ), ethnicity (e.g., Xu et al, 2009 ), or country of birth and growing up (e.g., Cassels et al, 2010 ). With reference to both the definition of culture and these previous studies, culture is defined as a string of simple proxies in the current study, including nationality (Australians or Mainland Chinese), ethnicity (Caucasians or Han Chinese), and country of birth and main place of growing up (Australian and Mainland China).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Culture–Sex Interaction and the Self-Report Empathy in Australians and Mainland Chinese

et al. 2019

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Empathy is the ability to understand and share other people’s emotions. Researchers have debated whether Westerners and Asians differ in their self-report empathy. This study aimed to replicate a previously reported culture–sex interaction in self-report empathy using Australian and Mainland Chinese participants, to investigate the cultural differences in self-report empathy in each sex group, and to verify the moderated mediating effects of three empathy-related traits (i.e., independent self-construal, interdependent self-construal, and personal distress) on the cultural differences in self-report empathy in both sex groups. In this study, scores on two self-report questionnaires of empathy, namely, the Empathy Quotient (EQ) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), were compared between 196 Australian Caucasian (101 males) and 211 Mainland Chinese (59 males) university students. Results first confirmed the significant culture–sex interaction and illustrated that the cultural differences in empathy scores were significant only for female (i.e., Australian females had higher scores than Mainland Chinese females) but not for male participants. Furthermore, results of moderated mediation analyses indicated that higher self-report empathy in both females and males was related to higher interdependent self-construal (exhibited by Mainland Chinese) and less personal distress (exhibited by Australians), and particularly in females, also related to higher independent self-construal (exhibited by Australian females). The current study is one of few studies that suggest cultural differences in empathy are dependent on the sex of the participant. Moreover, the current findings have added new insights into the explanation of cultural differences in empathy using personal distress and self-construal.

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“…Many studies examine empathy in multicultural settings, but very few focus on the Asian context (Jami et al, 2019). With relevance to culture, Hofstede's work on culture has been widely used to comprehend cultures across communities in the world, using concepts such as 'individualism' and 'collectivism' (Jami et al, 2019), and there is a growing need for collaboration between the West and East to understand multiculturalism (Marovic, 2020).…”

Section: Empathy In Multicultural Settingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Teacher, Am I Empathetic?’ Instilling Empathy in Adolescents

Ilhavenil¹,

Logeswaran

2023

Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction

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Purpose - Empathy portrays a pivotal role in moulding an individual into an affectionate human being. Numerous studies examine empathy in multicultural settings; however, it is still clouded with scarcity, especially in the Asian context. This study aims to explore the approaches two teachers had undertaken to develop empathy among multicultural students in their Moral Education lessons in Malaysian schools. Methodology - This study adopted a case study approach to investigate empathy development among multicultural 16-year-old students. The participants were two teachers who taught Moral Education (ME) in their respective schools. Data were collected for eight months through observations, interviews, teachers’ journals, and documents until saturated. Analysis was done using NVivo 8 software. Findings - Five categories were formed from the emergence of a single theme, ‘instilling empathy’ that revealed the representation ofthe approaches to be homogeneous between the two teachers. The categories were role-taking, watching movies, sharing stories, social activity, and discussion. The findings revealed the existence of limited strategies employed by the teachers in instilling empathy among the students, illuminating cognitive empathy over affective empathy. Significance - This study implied that teachers need more training on various methods to instil empathy, especially among students from multicultural backgrounds. This could lead to empathy training programmes that is relatively new in Malaysian schools that could benefit the young to enable them to work effectively in multicultural settings reflecting the diversity of this country.

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An Investigation of the Divergences and Convergences of Trait Empathy across Two Cultures

Cited by 6 publications

References 21 publications

Empathy influences the interpretation of whether others have violated everyday indeterminate rules.

Empathy influences the interpretation of whether others have violated everyday indeterminate rules.

Culture–Sex Interaction and the Self-Report Empathy in Australians and Mainland Chinese

‘Teacher, Am I Empathetic?’ Instilling Empathy in Adolescents

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