MOOD EFFECTS OF UNSUCCESSFUL HELPING - ANOTHER TEST OF THE EMPATHY-ALTRUISM HYPOTHESIS

The empathy-altruism hypothesis predicts that empathically aroused ind ividuals will report negative mood change after an unsuccessful attemp t to help, even if the failure is fully justified. Two experiments tes ted this prediction. In Experiment 1, subjects' failure at a helping t ask was either justified or not. As predicted, low-empathy subjects sh owed relatively little negative mood change. In Experiment 2 a differe nt manipulation of empathy was used, and mood change was assessed afte r success on a helping task failed to relieve the other's need. Again as predicted, low-empathy subjects showed little mood change, whereas high-empathy subjects showed substantial negative mood change. Results of each experiment, then supported the empathy-altruism hypothesis.