{"title":"When empathy leads to aggression: The effects of empathy on punitive attitudes towards aggressors","authors":"Célia F. Camara, Alejandra Sel, Paul H. P. Hanel","doi":"10.1111/bjso.12907","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>When witnessing aggression, individuals often empathize more with victims than with aggressors, which may bias their perceptions and interpretations of the transgressions. However, the mechanisms underlying these biases remain poorly understood. Through two experiments, we investigated whether people's decisions to condemn aggressors are influenced by their predisposition to sympathize with the victim and explored how negative sentiments towards the aggressor may influence these decisions. Further, we tested the moderating role of callous-unemotional traits, hypothesizing that moral judgements and decisions to punish may differ among individuals who are less emotionally responsive, as they are less likely to sympathize with victims. Our findings revealed that greater empathy for victims intensified punitive attitudes towards aggressors, primarily mediated by participants' negative evaluations of the aggressor. Notably, such empathic inclinations were less prevalent among individuals with higher levels of callous-unemotional traits, as reflected by their lower concern for victims and greater inclination towards harsh punishments. These results offer insights into how justice-related attitudes may be shaped and potentially biased by individual differences in emotional responsiveness.</p>","PeriodicalId":48304,"journal":{"name":"British Journal of Social Psychology","volume":"64 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/bjso.12907","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"British Journal of Social Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjso.12907","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
When witnessing aggression, individuals often empathize more with victims than with aggressors, which may bias their perceptions and interpretations of the transgressions. However, the mechanisms underlying these biases remain poorly understood. Through two experiments, we investigated whether people's decisions to condemn aggressors are influenced by their predisposition to sympathize with the victim and explored how negative sentiments towards the aggressor may influence these decisions. Further, we tested the moderating role of callous-unemotional traits, hypothesizing that moral judgements and decisions to punish may differ among individuals who are less emotionally responsive, as they are less likely to sympathize with victims. Our findings revealed that greater empathy for victims intensified punitive attitudes towards aggressors, primarily mediated by participants' negative evaluations of the aggressor. Notably, such empathic inclinations were less prevalent among individuals with higher levels of callous-unemotional traits, as reflected by their lower concern for victims and greater inclination towards harsh punishments. These results offer insights into how justice-related attitudes may be shaped and potentially biased by individual differences in emotional responsiveness.
期刊介绍：
The British Journal of Social Psychology publishes work from scholars based in all parts of the world, and manuscripts that present data on a wide range of populations inside and outside the UK. It publishes original papers in all areas of social psychology including: • social cognition • attitudes • group processes • social influence • intergroup relations • self and identity • nonverbal communication • social psychological aspects of personality, affect and emotion • language and discourse Submissions addressing these topics from a variety of approaches and methods, both quantitative and qualitative are welcomed. We publish papers of the following kinds: • empirical papers that address theoretical issues; • theoretical papers, including analyses of existing social psychological theories and presentations of theoretical innovations, extensions, or integrations; • review papers that provide an evaluation of work within a given area of social psychology and that present proposals for further research in that area; • methodological papers concerning issues that are particularly relevant to a wide range of social psychologists; • an invited agenda article as the first article in the first part of every volume. The editorial team aims to handle papers as efficiently as possible. In 2016, papers were triaged within less than a week, and the average turnaround time from receipt of the manuscript to first decision sent back to the authors was 47 days.
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