Brief empathy interventions online can decrease but not increase empathic tendencies.

ABSTRACT: People often feel less empathy towards outgroup compared to ingroup targets. Overcoming this intergroup empathy bias is important for fostering positive intergroup relations. In five pre-registered and high-powered online studies (n = 4776 (745/745/1056/1236/994)), we attempted to replicate and generalize motivated empathy interventions that previously have made people more empathetic and prosocial towards outgroup targets. Using both between- and within-subject designs, self-reported empathy measures and factual monetary donations, we examined the effects of several brief interventions. The interventions targeted avoidance motivations based on beliefs about the un/limited nature of empathy or approach motivations based on beliefs about empathy's malleability or normatively desirability. A

SUBMITTER: Tagesson A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12618501 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature