I Care About Your Plight, But Only If I Like Your Leader

The Effect of National Leaders’ Perceived Personality on Empathy and Pro-Social Behavior Towards Their Citizenry

Bibliographic Data

ID21453624
AuthorsMeital Balmas (0000-0001-9191-0488, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, corresponding author), Eran Halperin (0000-0002-3379-2935, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)
Year2022
Volume48
Issue3
Pages331-346
Publication date2022-03-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0146-1672 • E-ISSN: 1552-7433
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0146167220987989
PMID33847201
OpenAlexW3153372397
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited23

People’s default levels of empathy toward members of a distant group tend to be low. The current research shows that favorable perceptions regarding the personality of a group’s leader can stimulate empathy and pro-social behavior toward his or her countrymen. In four experimental studies ( N = 884), we found that exposure to a news article that positively (vs. negatively) characterizes a foreign national leader (vs. non-national leader) led to (a) increased levels of empathy toward distressed citizens of that leader’s nation, (b) willingness to help those citizens, (c) motivation to invest time in inspecting additional information elucidating the circumstances that led to this adversity, and (d) an actual monetary donation for the benefit of those people. This effect turned out to be prominent when the national leader’s domestic popularity was perceived as high. The results show that national leaders are in a position to contribute to more empathetic inter-society relations and enhance pro-social behavior

Altruism (biology) · Empathy · Perception · Personality · Popularity · Prosocial behavior · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Media Influence and Health · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology

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