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Cited by 2,672Emotions and Moral BehaviorChild and Animal Learning DevelopmentChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviors

Eisenberg, Nancy, Miller, Paul A.·1987·Psychological Bulletin
DOI 10.1037/0033-2909.101.1.91
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Abstract

In a prior review involving a meta-analysis (Underwood & Moore, 1982), no relation between affective empathy and prosocial behavior was found. In this article, the literature relevant to this issue is reexamined. The studies were organized according to the method used to assess empathy. When appropriate, meta-analyses were computed. In contrast to the earlier review, low to moderate positive relations generally were found between empathy and both prosocial behavior and cooperative/socially competent behavior. The method of assessing empathy did influence the strength of the relations; picture/story measures of empathy were not associated with prosocial behavior, whereas nearly all other measures were. Several possible explanations for the pattern of findings are discussed, as are the implications of the findings.

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Crossref · 10.1037/0033-2909.101.1.91

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  • Individual differences in empathy affect the way people recognize facial expressions and react emotionally to social cues.

    “Remarkably, individual differences in empathy have been shown to affect the way people recognize facial expressions (Besel and Yuille, 2010) and react emotionally to social cues (Eisenberg and Miller, 1987), suggesting that empathic abilities may shape the way we process social cues.”

    From OT promotes closer interpersonal distance among highly empathic individuals (2015) · cites this paper as Eisenberg and Miller, 1987

  • The present results support the notion that training of compassionate motivation leads to increases in prosocial behavior, similar to situation-specific induction of empathic concern.

    “The present results support the notion that similar to situation-specific induction of empathic concern for a specific person in need [8], [49], the training of compassionate motivation leads to increases in prosocial behavior.”

    From Short-term compassion training increases prosocial behavior in a newly developed prosocial game (2011) · cites this paper as [49]

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Authors
Eisenberg, N., & Miller, P. A.
Affiliations
  • Arizona State University (US)
  • Nanjing University (CN)
ORCID
Eisenberg, Nancy
Venue
Psychological Bulletin
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
1987
Volume
101
Issue
1
Pages
91-119
ISSN
  • 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1455
DOI
10.1037/0033-2909.101.1.91
OpenAlex
W2005210865
Cited by
2,672
References
124
Citations by year
2026: 125 · 2025: 141 · 2024: 147 · 2023: 131 · 2022: 132 · 2021: 164 · 2020: 163 · 2019: 131 · 2018: 144 · 2017: 165 · 2016: 167 · 2015: 118 · 2014: 129 · 2013: 119 · 2012: 85
FWCI
29.54
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
U.S. Public Health Service (935691)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
empathy, affective empathy, prosocial behavior, cooperative behavior, social competence
MeSH terms
Empathy, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Social Behavior

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