Altruism Reconsidered: The Effect of Denying Feedback on a Victim's Status to Empathic Witnesses

• Published in: Journal of personality and social psychology 1989-10, Vol.57 (4), p.641-650
• Main Authors: Smith, Kyle D, Keating, John P, Stotland, Ezra
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Altruism; Assistance (Social Behavior); Behavior; Behavior. Attitude; Biological and medical sciences; Empathy; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Good samaritans; Happiness; Human; Motivation; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Social psychology; Social research; Witnesses
• ISSN: 0022-3514; 1939-1315
• DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.57.4.641

The empathy-altruism hypothesis interprets the empathy-helping link as evidence of true altruism. The negative state relief model interprets the same relation as an artifact of egoistic sadness-reduction. Neither view expresses the possibility that empathic concern reflects a general sensitivity to the emotional state of the victim and a specific sensitivity to vicarious joy at the resolution of the victim's needs. It is proposed that the prospect of empathic joy, conveyed by feedback from the help recipient, is essential to the special tendency of empathic witnesses to help. In neither of the alternative models does goal attainment depend on feedback. Results of an experimental contrast were consistent with the empathic joy hypothesis and inconsistent with the alternatives. Empathically aroused witnesses offered help reliably to a person in distress only when they expected feedback on the result; when denied feedback, empathic witnesses were no more likely to help than their nonempathic counter-parts. In contrast, nonempathic witnesses were unaffected by the availability of feedback in deciding whether to help. Implications of an empathic joy-based motive are discussed.