(Anti-)egalitarianism differentially predicts empathy for members of advantaged versus disadvantaged groups
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6201240 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Brian J Lucas (0000-0003-3569-3030, Cornell University), Nour S Kteily (0000-0003-4331-4037, Kellogg's (Canada)) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 114 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 665-692 |
| Publication date | 2018-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3514 • E-ISSN: 1939-1315 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/pspa0000112 |
| PMID | 29672102 |
| OpenAlex | W2801082777 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 26 |
| References cited | 46 |
We explore the relationship between group-based egalitarianism and empathy for members of advantaged groups (e.g., corporate executives; state officials) versus disadvantaged groups (e.g., blue-collar workers; schoolteachers) subjected to harmful actions, events, or policies. Whereas previous research suggests that anti-egalitarians (vs. egalitarians) dispositionally exhibit less empathy for others, we propose that this relationship depends on the target's position in the social hierarchy. We examined this question across eight studies (N = 3,154) conducted in the U.S. and the U.K., including online and in-person experiments and examining attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. We observed that (anti-)egalitarianism negatively predicted empathy for members of disadvantaged groups subjected to harmful situations, but positively predicted empathy for members of advantaged groups. This pattern held regardless of perceivers' own membership in advantaged or disadvantaged groups (i.e., perceiver gender, race, or SES). (Anti-)egalitarianism's differential effects on empathy for advantaged versus disadvantaged targets were attributable in part to differences in perceived degree of harm incurred (beyond roles for perceived value conflict and perceived deservingness): Egalitarians perceived the same action as more harmful than anti-egalitarians when it occurred to a disadvantaged target but less harmful than anti-egalitarians when it occurred to an advantaged target. We also explored how these patterns informed individuals' downstream policy attitudes and policy-relevant behavior (e.g., willingness to sign a petition). Our findings enrich understanding of (anti-)egalitarianism by testing competing perspectives on the link between (anti-)egalitarianism and empathy, and by demonstrating when and why individuals' preferences for social equality (vs. hierarchy) lead them to extend versus withhold empathy. (PsycINFO Database Record
Developmental psychology · Disadvantaged · Egalitarianism · Empathy · Harm · Political science · Politics · Cultural Differences and Values · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology
The dynamics of public opinion following terror attacks
Social dominance orientation
Social Dominance Orientation (SDO)
Equalitarianism
Public Preferences Regarding Equitable Healthcare Rationing Across Gender Identities in China
Ideological orientations, intergroup stereotypes, and opposition to permanent supportive housing
Health or wealth? The influence of perceived health and wealth threats and style of thinking on protective behaviours and well-being during the Covid-19 pandemic in Spain ( ¿Salud o riqueza? La influencia de las amenazas percibidas contra la salud y la riqueza y del estilo de pensamiento en las conductas de protección y el bienestar durante la pandemia de Covid-19 en España )
The Price of Materialism
Empathic Conservatives and Moralizing Liberals
The Relationship Between System Justification and Perspective-Taking and Empathy
Narratives About Deported Migrants Who Served in the U.S. Military Reduce Animosity Toward Migrants in the United States
Motivated moral judgments about freedom of speech are constrained by a need to maintain consistency
Right-leaning egalitarians are just as susceptible to social justice-induced product patronage! Evidence from the US and Malaysia
Using the sociopolitical motive × intergroup threat model of intergroup relations to understand opposition to policies that promote social equality
Intergroup images mediate the relationships between government abuse, sociopolitical orientations, and political action
Proud to support social equality
Which group to credit (and blame)? Whites make attributions about White-minority biracials’ successes and failures based on their own (anti-)egalitarianism and ethnic identification
Hierarchy as a signal of culture and belonging
The connections between personality, ideology and (counter‐)empathic emotions depend on the target
Views on Men Behaving Badly
Unequal participation
Heterosexual men in Trump's America downplay compassion more for masculine (than for feminine) gay victims of hate crime
Preference for hierarchy is associated with reduced empathy and increased counter-empathy towards others, especially out-group targets
Right‐Wing Ideology as a Predictor of Collective Action
Black and Latinx conservatives upshift competence relative to liberals in mostly white settings
Can women be perceived as good as men in sport? Only when doping
Judgments of Deservingness
Reversing Arrows in Mediation Models Does Not Distinguish Plausible Models
Mind Perception Is the Essence of Morality
Friends or Foes
Ideology and Prejudice
Empathy and Its Discontents
Exposure to ideologically diverse news and opinion on Facebook
Amazon's Mechanical Turk
The development of social knowledge
Discrimination Across the Ideological Divide
Social Dominance in Context and in Individuals
What Dilemma? Moral Evaluation Shapes Factual Belief
A Powerful Nudge? Presenting Calculable Consequences of Underpowered Research Shifts Incentives Toward Adequately Powered Designs
An Integrative Theory of Intergroup Conflict
Us and Them
The Ideological-Conflict Hypothesis
Social Dominance Orientation
You're Inferior and Not Worth Our Concern
Social dominance theory and the dynamics of intergroup relations
Ideological Support for the Indian Caste System
The Space between Us and Them
Mechanisms of moral disengagement and their differential use by right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation in support of war
Reactions to penalties for an offense in relation to authoritarianism, values, perceived responsibility, perceived seriousness, and deservingness
Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position
What mediation analysis can (not) do
On the ideology of hypodescent
Their pain gives us pleasure
Status boundary enforcement and the categorization of black–white biracials
Hierarchy in the mind
Social dominance orientation
Hierarchy in the eye of the beholder
Evidence for hypodescent and racial hierarchy in the categorization and perception of biracial individuals
Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations
Moral typecasting
Racial ambivalence and American value conflict
Free at last? Social dominance, loss aversion, and white and black Americans' differing assessments of racial progress
Motivated skepticism
Measuring individual differences in empathy
The nature of social dominance orientation
Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities
The role of stereotyping in system-justification and the production of false consciousness
Opposition to Race-Targeting
Political conservatism as motivated social cognition
Another Look at Moral Foundations Theory
Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation Predict Different Moral Signatures
More than Ideology
| Unique citing works | 26 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,25 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2026 (9) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 24 |