DOES EMPATHY LEAD TO ANYTHING MORE THAN SUPERFICIAL HELPING - COMMENT

To properly test the hypothesis that empathy-associated helping is alt ruistic, one needs to (a) consider plausible nonaltruistic alternative s for the observed empathy-helping effects, (b) validly and reliably m easure these nonaltruistic alternatives, and (c) examine whether the e mpathy-helping relationship remains after removing the effects of the full complement of reasonable nonaltruistic alternatives. C. D. Batson , K. Sager, E. Garst, M. Kang, K. Rubchinsky, and K. Dawson(1997) fail ed to meet these criteria. New data, and reanalyses of existing data, bolster the case that self-other overlap-a nonaltruistic motivator-und erlies the association between empathy and costly helping. At best, em pathy per se leads to superficial helping. In a postscript, the author s comment briefly on C. D. Batson's (1997) reply to this comment and, given his remarks, speculate as to whether the empathy-altruism formul ation is even relevant to understanding meaningful forms of help.