INFORMATION FUNCTION OF EMPATHIC EMOTION - LEARNING THAT WE VALUE THEOTHERS WELFARE

Empathic feelings arise when a person values another's welfare and per ceives the other to be in need. As a result, level of empathic respons e can be used to infer how much one values the welfare of a person in need. Four experiments were conducted to test these ideas. Experiments 1 and 2 revealed that a similarity manipulation led to increased valu ing of a similar person's welfare and, in turn, to increased empathy w hen this person was in need. Experiments 3 and 4 revealed that direct manipulations of empathy (perspective-taking instructions, or false ph ysiological arousal feedback) led to increased empathy and, in turn, t o increased valuing of the welfare of the person in need. Once induced , this valuing was a relatively stable disposition; it remained even a fter empathy had declined.