Empathy and attitudes: Can feeling for a member of a stigmatized group improve feelings toward the group?

“Research has shown that contact with stigmatized populations is related to lower levels of stigmatization because a diverse range of experiences often lead to greater tolerance and acceptance (Batson et al., 1997; Blau & Schwartz, 1984; Corrigan et al., 2002).”

“Experiment 3 thus manipulated empathy (through an often-used perspective taking [PT] manipulation; see Batson et al., 1997).”

“While positive reactions to attempts to elicit empathy may include concern, compassion, and a desire to behave altruistically (Batson et al., 1997), negative reactions to the plight of refugees may include guilt, shame, anxiety, threat, or revulsion.”

“First, previous studies using narratives as experimental manipulations focused on stigmatized and remote out-groups that pose little direct threat to the participants [17, 18].”

“…limited evidence that directly and explicitly tested responses to a particular outgroup member as a mediator or conduit for generalization, focused on how empathizing with a particular outgroup member can improve intergroup attitudes (see Batson, Chang, Orr, & Rowland, 2002; Batson et al., 1997).”

“…lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate /paid attitudes towards individuals from various stigmatized groups (Batson et al., 1997) as well as greater prosocial and cooperative behaviors (Eisenberg & Miller, 1987).”

“Empathy is an other-oriented reaction that reflects the value that is given to the welfare of another person (Batson et al., 1997).”

“We measured empathy by presenting participants with a list of 15 emotion words (Batson, 1991; Batson et al., 1997; Fultz, Batson, Fortenbach, McCarthy, & Varney, 1986; Vescio, Sechrist, & Paolucci, 2003) in which six empathic feeling words were embedded (sympathetic, compassionate, warmhearted,…”

“While prosocial behavior is pervasive it is by no means assured (Batson et al., 1997).”

“…who represent their action in abstract terms are more inclined to perceive themselves as sharing common goals with other individuals (Foster, 2009), and this perception leads to more empathic attitudes (Cialdini, Brown, Lewis, Luce, & Neuberg, 1997) and pro-social behaviors (Batson et al., 1997).”

“…taking have documented how it can reduce prejudice, including racial bias (Finlay and Stephan, 2000; Todd et al., 2011; Vescio et al., 2003), age bias (Galinsky and Moskowitz, 2000) biases toward individuals with a disease (Batson et al., 1997), and biases toward the homeless (Batson et al., 1997).”

“Experiencing empathy for a member of a stigmatized group is associated with low levels of expressed prejudice toward that group (Batson et al., 1996, 1997; Campbell & Babrow, 2004; McKeever, 2015), including in the context of obesity (e.g., Kushner, Zeiss, Feinglass, & Yelen, 2014).”

“Two key considerations guided the final decision on the delivery modality: (1) the need for flexibility in the timing and administration of training to mesh with busy health worker schedules, and (2) the demonstrated value of in-person participatory trainings, as well as contact strategies, to reduce stigma and foster…”

“This finding is consistent with research indicating that cognitive and emotional empathy reduces stereotypes and prejudice (Batson et al., 1997; Stephan & Finlay, 1999) and that friendship is a powerful vehicle for understanding other groups (Pettigrew, 1998).”

“Empathy/Concern for people affected by COVID-19 — Participants completed three items (e.g. “Please indicate the extent to which you feel concern for other people affected by COVID-19”) based on Batson et al. (1997) scale, using a scale from 1-not at all to 7-very much.”

“While personal distress may counteract mature forms of empathy [47,73,74], imaging studies have reported that participants who score high on the PD scale show enhanced reactivity of the insula when seeing both happy and disgusted facial expressions [75], as”

“Empathyrelated responses, such as providing help, are related to the perceived helplessness of a suffering victim (Batson et al., 1997; Weiner, 1980).”

“Testing undergraduate student response to news stories, Oliver et al. (2012) used a two-step model to show that people develop empathy from understanding an individual’s plight, which in turn engenders compassion toward stigmatized groups (also see Batson et al., 1997).”

“Since Davis’ (1994) classic work, empathy has been understood as comprising both an affective response to the emotional state of another (e.g., Batson et al., 1997), and, more cognitively, as the ability to take another person’s perspective (e.g., Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000).”

“[18] included contact with PLHA as a main component [29–32], and contact has been identified as an effective strategy for reducing stigma related to mental illness [33].”

“The findings are consistent with previous research suggesting that perspective-taking can prompt empathy (Batson, Chang, Orr, & Rowland, 2002; Batson et al., 1997), which in turn weakens automatic expressions of racial biases (Todd, Bodenhausen, Richeson, & Galinsky, 2011).”

“…is anti-social in its own right, but it has also been linked to a variety of factors that are reliably known to predict prejudice (including higher levels of social dominance orientation [SDO] and lower levels of empathic concern for others: e.g., Batson et al., 1997; Carnahan & McFarland, 2007).”

“Researchers have demonstrated that developing empathy for or assuming the perspective of a stigmatized other might diminish stigma by increasing understanding and compassion for that condition [75].”

“Given that college students are aware of prejudice toward African Americans and feel pressure to avoid appearing prejudiced (Devine, Plant, Amodio, Harmon-Jones, & Vance, 2002), and attitudes about stigmatized groups are difficult to change (Batson et al., 1997), if perspectivetakers take on the target's negative inte…”

“…Germany 2 University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany 3 Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA Bereczkei 2006), reduces stereotyping (Galinsky and Moskowitz 2000; Todd et al. 2012), and widens our Bcircle of moral regard^ to the inclusion of formerly stigmatized groups (Batson et al. 1997).”

“EC is related to pro-social behavior and decreased biases against out-groups and associated with helping of out-group members (Batson et al., 1997; Böhm, Theelen, et al., 2018).”

“Inducing empathy toward stigmatized groups has been found to improve attitudes toward those groups (Batson et al., 1997).”

“Furthermore, experimentally enhancing empathy (by asking participants to imagine how a member of the other group feels) reduced consumer ethnocentrism (Batson et al. 1997).”

“Researchers have used perspective taking to evoke empathy and change attitudes towards other stigmatized groups, such as convicted murderers, homeless people and AIDS victims (59).”

“An understanding of (the lack of) positive predictors and mediators such as empathy and perspective taking (Batson et al., 1997) and an investigation into the ways in which homosexual Jamaicans are affected by institutionalized and structural discrimination would also be essential.”

“Participants indicated how strongly they felt sympathy, compassion, softheartedness, warmness and moved by transgender people (Batson et al., 1997; modified from Hodson, Choma, & Costello, 2009), with higher scores indicating great transgender empathy.”

“…the positive emotions of a suffering but hopeful social target (using empathy instructions similar to those employed by Batson and colleagues; e.g., Batson et al., 1997) resulted in an increase in vicarious positive emotionality, whereas encouraging participants to connect with the target's…”

“Importantly, the effect of empathy can be relatively long-lasting, even when the recipient of the empathy is an atypical group member or is perceived to be responsible for his/her fate (Batson et al., 1997).”

“Further, studies have found that some of the positive effects of perspective-taking can last for hours [35], days [36], weeks [37], and even months [38].”

“…in particular, it has been found that people who are closer to us evoke stronger other-oriented emotions, such as sympathy and compassion (e.g. Batson et al. 1997), as well as stronger self-oriented emotions, such as distress and anxiety (Piliavin, Rodin & Piliavin, 1969; Kogut & Ritov, 2011).”

“…may be more inclined to support Black people targeted by discriminatory incidents, as they are more likely to be aware of the broader existence of structural inequalities (Batson et al., 1997; Curtin et al., 2015; see also Acar & Uluğ, 2016; Vollhardt, 2009 for related research in other contexts).”

“…extensive line of research in psychology has demonstrated that perspective-taking (i.e. imagining what it would be like to be someone else under specific circumstances) is an effective way of increasing empathy and helping behaviors toward members of stigmatized groups (Batson et al., 1997a).”

“We must invite dialogues with our students that facilitate the sharing of their experiences and make an intentional effort to understand their perspectives [23].”

“Empathy is a trait that can be increased through training, especially empathy toward oppressed groups (Batson et al., 1997).”

“The researchers found that a key mediating factor explaining these enhanced impacts of indirect hate crimes was empathy – that is, the willingness or capacity to feel the emotions of others (Batson et al., 1997).”

“Finally, people may experience emotions, such as empathy, when they perceive moral patients being harmed, which can motivate helping behavior (Batson et al., 1997).”

“We focused on the correlation between WM of BM and empathy, an essential aspect of normal social functioning, which has been extensively studied in the last decades from developmental, social, clinical, and neuroscience perspectives (e.g., Baron-Cohen &Wheelwright, 2004; Batson et al., 1997; Blakemore, 2008; Decety &…”

“It has been proposed that empathy can bridge cultural differences by providing a means to integrate an attitude of openness to diversity with the appropriate knowledge and skills to work successfully with people from other cultures [29].”

“Experiencing a plight similar to that of another person may enhance perspective-taking and empathy, and boost altruistic behavior (e.g., Batson et al., 1997).”

“Other variables may also be important, such as an individual’s (lack of) empathy or perspective-taking (Batson et al., 1997; Johnson, Jasper, Griffin, & Huffman, 2013) or, more simply, explicit and implicit racial bias (Nosek et al.”

“Although this approach of assessing attitudes toward individual group members before assessing overall group attitudes is not uncommon in social psychological research (e.g., Batson, Chang, & Rowland, 2002; Batson et al., 1997), this leaves open the possibility that asking children about their attitudes toward specifi…”

“On a positive note, the study suggested “perspective-taking” intervention could be used to help ameliorate the treatment disparities (see Batson et al., 1997).”

“…do not usually frame these methods as meta-cognitive in nature (see, e.g., Paolini et al., 2009; for a meta-cognitive re-interpretation of Batson et al., 1997), they manipulate the size and/or the direction of individual-to-group generalisation through triggering meta-cognitive…”

“, 2013) and negatively associated with social prejudice (Batson et al., 1997; Miklikowska, 2018).”

“, 2008), but more so for perspective-taking than for empathy (Batson et al., 1997).”