The DOI matches its Crossref record; 122 of the 124 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The relation of empathy to prosocial and related behaviors
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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“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
In the citing paper
“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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Cites
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Baron-Cohen, S., & Wheelwright, S. (2004) · Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders · doi:10.1023/b:jadd.0000022607.19833.00 · Cited by 4,093
Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy
Litz, B. T., Stein, N., Delaney, E., Lebowitz, L., Nash, W. P., Silva, C., & Maguen, S. (2009) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2009.07.003 · Cited by 2,738
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“Although empathy is defined in different ways, it is often conceptualized as an affective state “that stems from the apprehension of another’s emotional state or condition, and that is congruent with it” (Eisenberg and Miller 1987, p. 91).”
BackgroundCompassion: an evolutionary analysis and empirical review
Goetz, J. L., Keltner, D., & Simon-Thomas, E. (2010) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0018807 · Cited by 2,200
Metadata
- Authors
- Eisenberg, N., & Miller, P. A.
- Affiliations
- Arizona State University (US)
- Nanjing University (CN)
- ORCID
- Eisenberg, Nancy
- Venue
- Psychological Bulletin
- Published
- 1987
- Volume
- 101
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 91-119
- ISSN
- 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1455
- 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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