Empathy and motivation for justice: Cognitive empathy and concern, but not emotional empathy, predict sensitivity to injustice for others

Abstract

Why do people tend to care for upholding principles of justice? This study examined the association between individual differences in the affective, motivational and cognitive components of empathy, sensitivity to justice, and psychopathy in participants (N 265) who were also asked to rate the permissibility of everyday moral situations that pit personal benefit against moral standards of justice. Counter to commonsense, emotional empathy was not associated with sensitivity to injustice for others. Rather, individual differences in cognitive empathy and empathic concern predicted sensitivity to justice for others, as well as the endorsement of moral rules. Psychopathy coldheartedness scores were inversely associated with motivation for justice. Moreover, hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis revealed that self-focused and other-focused orientations toward justice had opposing influences on the permissibility of moral judgments. High scores on psychopathy were associated with less moral condemnation of immoral behavior. Together, these results contribute to a better understanding of the information processing mechanisms underlying justice motivation, and may guide interventions designed to foster justice and moral behavior. In order to promote justice motivation, it may be more effective to encourage perspective taking and reasoning to induce concern for others than emphasizing emotional sharing with the misfortune of others.

Empathy, Justice, and Moral Behavior

“…Justice sensitivity modulates activity across several domain-general systems, particularly in regions of the prefrontal cortex involved in intention, understanding and goal representations in service of moral decision-making, and importantly does not influence the salience network involved in affective appraisal. These findings are also supported by a study that examined the association between individual differences in different facets of empathy (affective, motivational, and cognitive), justice sensitivity, and psychopathy (Decety and Yoder 2015). Participants rated the permissibility of everyday moral conflict in situations that pit personal benefit against moral standards of justice.…”

The empathy impulse: A multinomial model of intentional and unintentional empathy for pain.

“…The Unintentional Empathy parameter may be a purer reflection of empathy by comparison to many trait measures. For instance, the Personal Distress scale of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983) has been used as a trait measure of experience sharing (e.g., Decety & Yoder, 2015), yet the item content may capture emotion dysregulation rather than vicarious sharing of affective experiences. By contrast, the current task is designed to capture experience sharing through its incidental influence on target judgments: If a person resonates with the experiences depicted in primes (e.g., pain), then she should be more likely to be biased toward judging target experiences as painful.…”

The Franciscan Prayer Elicits Empathic and Cooperative Intentions in Atheists: A Neurocognitive and Phenomenological Enquiry

“…Hence suggesting that there is a standard empathic profile related to the cognitive regulation of emotions needed to project one's understanding of the other (Batson, 2009). Although empathy has been related to moral qualities that favor social justice (Decety and Yoder, 2016), this relation may also involve existential satisfaction and empathic dispositions understood as psychosocial elements manifested in memories and cooperative decisions, as was revealed in participants' experiences when reading The Franciscan Prayer.…”