EMPATHY AND THE COLLECTIVE GOOD - CARING FOR ONE OF THE OTHERS IN A SOCIAL DILEMMA

We predicted that feeling empathy for another member of the collective in a social dilemma would create an altruistic desire to allocate res ources to that person as an individual, reducing collective good. To t est this prediction, 2 studies were run. In each, participants faced a dilemma in which they could choose to benefit themselves, the group, or other group members as individuals. In Study 1, empathy for another group member was manipulated; in Study 2, naturally occurring empathi c response was determined by self-report. In both studies, participant s who experienced high empathy allocated more resources to the target of empathy, reducing the overall collective good. These results sugges t the importance of considering self-interest, collective interest, an d other-interest (altruism) as three distinct motives, each of which m ay operate in social dilemmas.