Distress and empathy: two qualitatively distinct vicarious emotions with different motivational consequences
Abstract
The construct of empathy may be located conceptually at several different points in the network of interpersonal cognition and emotion. We discuss one specific form of emotional empathy--other-focused feelings evoked by perceiving another person in need. First, evidence is reviewed suggesting that there are at least two distinct types of congruent emotional responses to perceiving another in need: feelings of personal distress (e.g., alarmed, upset, worried, disturbed, distressed, troubled, etc.) and feelings of empathy (e.g., sympathetic, moved, compassionate, tender, warm, softhearted, etc.). Next, evidence is reviewed suggesting that these two emotional responses have different motivational consequences. Personal distress seems to evoke egoistic motivation to reduce one's own aversive arousal, as a traditional Hullian tension-reduction model would propose. Empathy does not. The motivation evoked by empathy may instead be altruistic, for the ultimate goal seems to be reduction of the other's need, not reduction of one's own aversive arousal. Overall, the recent empirical evidence appears to support the more differentiated view of emotion and motivation proposed long ago by McDougall, not the unitary view proposed by Hull and his followers.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Intense sharing of another's pain can be a primary cause for empathic distress and decreased helping behavior.
“intense sharing of the other's pain can be a primary cause for empathic distress and decreased helping behavior (Batson et al., 1987;Eisenberg et al., 1989).”
From Differential pattern of functional brain plasticity after compassion and empathy training (2014) · cites this paper as Batson et al., 1987
Cites
Kytle, J., & Bandura, A. (1978) · Contemporary Sociology · doi:10.2307/2065952 · Cited by 25,422 · see citing works
Advances In Experimental Social Psychology
(2022) · Advances in experimental social psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(22)x0002-6 · Cited by 22,559 · see citing works
The psychology of interpersonal relations
Heider, F. (1958) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.2307/2089062 · Cited by 17,189 · see citing works
The psychology of interpersonal relations.
Heider, F. (1958) · doi:10.1037/10628-000 · Cited by 13,457 · see citing works
Hume, D. A. (1739) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511620409.040 · Cited by 9,855 · see citing works
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Smith, A. (1759) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/oseo/instance.00042831 · Cited by 3,629 · see citing works
A measure of emotional empathy1
Mehrabian, A., & Epstein, N. (1972) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1972.tb00078.x · Cited by 2,360 · see citing works
The James-Lange Theory of Emotions: A Critical Examination and an Alternative Theory
Cannon, W. B. (1927) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/1415404 · Cited by 1,899 · see citing works
The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
Cameron, R. E. (1969) · The Journal of Economic History · doi:10.1017/s0022050700072508 · Cited by 1,660 · see citing works
Social psychophysiology : a sourcebook
Cacioppo, J. T., Petty, R. E., & Shapiro, D. (1983) · Cited by 1,596 · see citing works
Development of an empathy scale.
Hogan, R. (1969) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0027580 · Cited by 1,532 · see citing works
Moral Development and Behavior: Theory, Research, and Social Issues
Henley, L., & Lickona, T. (1976) · The Family Coordinator · doi:10.2307/582353 · Cited by 1,284 · see citing works
The Interaction of Cognitive and Physiological Determinants of Emotional State
Schachter, S. (1964) · Advances in experimental social psychology · doi:10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60048-9 · Cited by 1,186 · see citing works
Is empathic emotion a source of altruistic motivation?
Batson, C. D., Duncan, B. D., Ackerman, P., Buckley, T., & Birch, K. (1981) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.40.2.290 · Cited by 1,169 · see citing works
Self-citationEysenck, H. J., & Hull, C. L. (1954) · British Journal of Sociology · doi:10.2307/587674 · Cited by 907 · see citing works
The distinction between sympathy and empathy: To call forth a concept, a word is needed.
Wispe, L. G. (1986) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.50.2.314 · Cited by 895 · see citing works
Empathic mediation of helping: A two-stage model.
Coke, J. S., Batson, C. D., & McDavis, K. (1978) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.36.7.752 · Cited by 816 · see citing works
Self-citationThe effects of dispositional empathy on emotional reactions and helping: A multidimensional approach
Davis, M. H. (1983) · Journal of Personality · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6494.1983.tb00860.x · Cited by 800 · see citing works
Is altruism part of human nature?
Hoffman, M. L. (1981) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.40.1.121 · Cited by 750 · see citing works
Development of Prosocial Motivation: Empathy and Guilt
Hoffman, M. L. (1982) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-234980-5.50016-x · Cited by 720 · see citing works
An Introduction to Social Psychology (1913)
McDougall, W. (1908) · Methuen & Co eBooks · doi:10.1037/12261-000 · Cited by 710 · see citing works
Krebs, D. L. (1975) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.32.6.1134 · Cited by 653 · see citing works
Influence of self-reported distress and empathy on egoistic versus altruistic motivation to help.
Batson, C. D., O'Quin, K. E., Fultz, J., Vanderplas, M., & Isen, A. M. (1983) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.45.3.706 · Cited by 589 · see citing works
Self-citationDevelopmental synthesis of affect and cognition and its implications for altruistic motivation.
Hoffman, M. L. (1975) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/0012-1649.11.5.607 · Cited by 565 · see citing works
Interpersonal perception of young children: Egocentrism or empathy?
Borke, H. (1971) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0031267 · Cited by 554 · see citing works
Perspective-taking and altruism.
Underwood, B., & Moore, B. S. (1982) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.91.1.143 · Cited by 544 · see citing works
More evidence that empathy is a source of altruistic motivation.
Toi, M., & Batson, C. D. (1982) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.43.2.281 · Cited by 463 · see citing works
Self-citationA scale for the measurement of empathic ability.
Dymond, R. F. (1949) · Journal of Consulting Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0061728 · Cited by 439 · see citing works
Goldstein, J. H. (1980) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-287050-7.50011-4 · Cited by 439 · see citing works
Krebs, D. (1975) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.32.6.1134 · Cited by 417 · see citing works
Cialdini, R. B., & Kenrick, D. T. (1976) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.34.5.907 · Cited by 408 · see citing works
Altruism and helping behavior : social, personality, and developmental perspectives
Rushton, J. P., & Sorrentino, R. M. (1981) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 389 · see citing works
Comte, A. (1968) · Cited by 355 · see citing works
Where is the altruism in the altruistic personality?
Batson, C. D., Bolen, M. H., Cross, J. A., & Neuringer-Benefiel, H. E. (1986) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.50.1.212 · Cited by 311 · see citing works
Self-citationCialdini, R. B., & Kenrick, D. T. (1976) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.34.5.907 · Cited by 301 · see citing works
Fear‐Arousing and Empathy‐Arousing Appeals to Help: The Pathos of Persuasion
Shelton, M. L., & Rogers, R. W. (1981) · Journal of Applied Social Psychology · doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.1981.tb00829.x · Cited by 210 · see citing works
Social evaluation and the empathy-altruism hypothesis.
Fultz, J., Batson, C. D., Fortenbach, V. A., McCarthy, P. M., & Varney, L. L. (1986) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-3514.50.4.761 · Cited by 210 · see citing works
Self-citationWhatever Became of Consistency Theory?
Abelson, R. P. (1983) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167283091006 · Cited by 206 · see citing works
The role of dispositional empathy and social evaluation in the empathic mediation of helping.
ARCHER, R. L., Díaz‐Loving, R., Gollwitzer, P. M., Davis, M. H., & Foushee, H. C. (1981) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.40.4.786 · Cited by 168 · see citing works
Aring, C. D. (1958) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.1958.02990210034008 · Cited by 161 · see citing works
Social evaluation and the empathy–altruism hypothesis.
Fultz, J., Batson, C. D., Fortenbach, V. A., et al. (1986) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.50.4.761 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Self-citationThe heroic motive: Some experimental demonstrations
Meindl, J. R., & Lerner, M. J. (1983) · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology · doi:10.1016/0022-1031(83)90002-1 · Cited by 73 · see citing works
Thomas, G. C., Batson, C. D., & Coke, J. S. (1981) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.40.1.194 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Self-citationPlevin, M. D. (1981) · Virginia Law Review · doi:10.2307/1072746 · Cited by 54 · see citing works
Altruism and Human Kindness: Internal and External Determinants of Helping Behavior
Batson, C. D., Darley, J. M., & Coke, J. S. (1978) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-3997-7_6 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990) · Imagination, Cognition and Personality · doi:10.2190/dugg-p24e-52wk-6cdg · Cited by 10,484 · see citing works
Empathy: its ultimate and proximate bases
Preston, S. D., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2002) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x02000018 · Cited by 4,126 · see citing works
Compassion: 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 · see citing works
The social neuroscience of empathy
Singer, T., & Lamm, C. (2009) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04418.x · Cited by 1,981 · see citing works
The Neural Substrate of Human Empathy: Effects of Perspective-taking and Cognitive Appraisal
Lamm, C., Batson, C. D., & Decety, J. (2007) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2007.19.1.42 · Cited by 1,464 · see citing works
Self-citationMeasuring empathy: reliability and validity of the Empathy Quotient
LAWRENCE, E. J., SHAW, P., BAKER, D., BARON-COHEN, S., & DAVID, A. S. (2004) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291703001624 · Cited by 1,014 · see citing works
Interpersonal emotion regulation.
Zaki, J., & Williams, W. C. (2013) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/a0033839 · Cited by 988 · see citing works
Reducing intergroup prejudice and conflict using the media: A field experiment in Rwanda.
Paluck, E. L. (2009) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0011989 · Cited by 902 · see citing works
Reconstructing and deconstructing the self: cognitive mechanisms in meditation practice
Dahl, C. J., Lutz, A., & Davidson, R. J. (2015) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.07.001 · Cited by 809 · see citing works
The road to forgiveness: A meta-analytic synthesis of its situational and dispositional correlates
Fehr, R., Gelfand, M. J., & Nag, M. (2010) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0019993 · Cited by 749 · see citing works
Decety, J., Bartal, I. B.-A., Uzefovsky, F., & Knafo-Noam, A. (2016) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0077 · Cited by 740 · see citing works
Differential pattern of functional brain plasticity after compassion and empathy training
Klimecki, O. M., Leiberg, S., Ricard, M., & Singer, T. (2014) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nst060 · Cited by 676 · see citing works
Dissecting the neural mechanisms mediating empathy
Decety, J. (2011) · Emotion Review · doi:10.1177/1754073910374662 · Cited by 521 · see citing works
Putting together phylogenetic and ontogenetic perspectives on empathy
Decety, J., & Svetlova, M. (2012) · Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2011.05.003 · Cited by 508 · see citing works
Hall, J. A., & Schwartz, R. (2019) · The Journal of Social Psychology · doi:10.1080/00224545.2018.1477442 · Cited by 370 · see citing works
Collective guilt: Emotional reactions when one's group has done wrong or been wronged
Wohl, M. J. A., Branscombe, N. R., & Klar, Y. (2006) · European Review of Social Psychology · doi:10.1080/10463280600574815 · Cited by 339 · see citing works
Collateral Damage: The Health Effects of Invasive Police Encounters in New York City
Sewell, A. A., & Jefferson, K. A. (2016) · Journal of Urban Health · doi:10.1007/s11524-015-0016-7 · Cited by 273 · see citing works
Mindfulness and Counseling Self‐Efficacy: The Mediating Role of Attention and Empathy
Greason, P. B., & Cashwell, C. S. (2009) · Counselor Education and Supervision · doi:10.1002/j.1556-6978.2009.tb00083.x · Cited by 272 · see citing works
The role of shared neural activations, mirror neurons, and morality in empathy – A critical comment
Lamm, C., & Majdandžić, J. (2015) · Neuroscience Research · doi:10.1016/j.neures.2014.10.008 · Cited by 252 · see citing works
Stern, J. A., & Cassidy, J. (2018) · Developmental Review · doi:10.1016/j.dr.2017.09.002 · Cited by 222 · see citing works
Strategic regulation of empathy
Weisz, E., & Cikara, M. (2021) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2020.12.002 · Cited by 217 · see citing works
Kanske, P., Böckler, A., Trautwein, F.-M., Parianen Lesemann, F. H., & Singer, T. (2016) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsw052 · Cited by 209 · see citing works
“Hence, empathy can be described as ‘feeling with’ rather than ‘feeling for’ another, the latter referring to empathic concern and compassion (Batson et al., 1987).”
BackgroundSocial cognition, brain networks and schizophrenia
LEE, K.-H., FARROW, T. F. D., SPENCE, S. A., & WOODRUFF, P. W. R. (2004) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291703001284 · Cited by 190 · see citing works
Steinbeis, N. (2016) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0074 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
Anxiolytic Treatment Impairs Helping Behavior in Rats
Ben-Ami Bartal, I., Shan, H., Molasky, N. M. R., Murray, T. M., Williams, J. Z., Decety, J., & Mason, P. (2016) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00850 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Thoma, P., Friedmann, C., & Suchan, B. (2013) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.01.024 · Cited by 134 · see citing works
Down-Regulating Narcissistic Tendencies: Communal Focus Reduces State Narcissism
Giacomin, M., & Jordan, C. H. (2014) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167213516635 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Effects of compassion meditation on a psychological model of charitable donation.
Ashar, Y. K., Andrews-Hanna, J. R., Yarkoni, T., Sills, J., Halifax, J., Dimidjian, S., & Wager, T. D. (2016) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/emo0000119 · Cited by 78 · see citing works
Empathy in depression: egocentric and altercentric biases and the role of alexithymia
Hoffmann, F., Banzhaf, C., Kanske, P., Gärtner, M., Bermpohl, F., & Singer, T. (2016) · Journal of Affective Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jad.2016.03.007 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Intensive meditation training influences emotional responses to suffering
Rosenberg, E. L., Zanesco, A. P., King, B. G., Aichele, S. R., Jacobs, T. L., Bridwell, D. A., MacLean, K. A., Shaver, P. R., Ferrer, E., Sahdra, B. K., et al. (2015) · Emotion · doi:10.1037/emo0000080 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Tabak, B. A., Meyer, M. L., Castle, E., Dutcher, J. M., Irwin, M. R., Han, J. H., Lieberman, M. D., & Eisenberger, N. I. (2015) · Psychoneuroendocrinology · doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.10.006 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Mindfulness meditation regulates anterior insula activity during empathy for social pain.
Laneri, D., Krach, S., Paulus, F. M., Kanske, P., Schuster, V., Sommer, J., & Müller‐Pinzler, L. (2017) · Human Brain Mapping · doi:10.1002/hbm.23646 · Cited by 61 · see citing works
The neural mediators of kindness-based meditation: a theoretical model
Mascaro, J. S., Darcher, A., Negi, L. T., & Raison, C. L. (2015) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00109 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Theodoridou, A., Rowe, A. C., & Mohr, C. (2013) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00197 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
“For instance, OT might increase empathic concern for a person in need and/or attenuate feelings of personal distress (Batson et al., 1987).”
BackgroundGrynberg, D., & Konrath, S. (2020) · Acta Psychologica · doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2020.103175 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Adaptive Empathy Learning Support in Peer Review Scenarios
Wambsganss, T., Soellner, M., Koedinger, K. R., & Leimeister, J. M. (2022) · CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/3491102.3517740 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
Han, X., He, K., Wu, B., Shi, Z., Liu, Y., Luo, S., Wei, K., Wu, X., & Han, S. (2017) · Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience · doi:10.1093/scan/nsx016 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Understanding empathy and its disorders through a focus on the neural mechanism.
Preston, S. D., Ermler, M., Lei, Y., & Bickel, L. (2020) · Cortex · doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.03.001 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Lenhart, J., Dangel, J., & Richter, T. (2022) · Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts · doi:10.1037/aca0000341 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
Silveira, S., Godara, M., & Singer, T. (2023) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/45027 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
How therapists' emotion recognition relates to therapy process and outcome
Abargil, M., & Tishby, O. (2022) · Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy · doi:10.1002/cpp.2680 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
- Authors
- Batson, C. D., Fultz, J., & Schoenrade, P. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Kansas (US)
- Corresponding author
- Batson, C. Daniel
- ORCID
- Batson, C. Daniel
- Venue
- Journal of Personality
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1987-03
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 19-39
- ISSN
- 0022-3506 (ISSN-L)
- 1467-6494
- OpenAlex
- W2126669672
- Cited by
- 1,246
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 95 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 56 · 2023: 90 · 2022: 84 · 2021: 86 · 2020: 144 · 2019: 63 · 2018: 59 · 2017: 70 · 2016: 56 · 2015: 67 · 2014: 70 · 2013: 48 · 2012: 33
- FWCI
- 4.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- personal distress, empathy, vicarious emotions, affective empathy, altruistic motivation, egoistic motivation, interpersonal cognition, McDougall
- MeSH terms
- Affective Symptoms, Altruism, Defense Mechanisms, Empathy, Humans, Motivation
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
