Altruistic Personality in the Context of the Empathy–Altruism

17 Pages·2011·0.12 MB·English

European Journal of Personality
Eur. J. Pers. 18:351–365 (2004)
PublishedonlineinWileyInterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com).DOI:10.1002/per.523
Altruistic Personality in the Context of the
Empathy–Altruism Hypothesis
HANS-WERNER BIERHOFF* and ELKE ROHMANN
Ruhr-UniversityBochum,Germany
Abstract
Inthisstudytheinfluenceofthealtruisticpersonalityingeneralandsocialresponsibility
in particular on prosocial behaviour were investigated in the context of the empathy–
altruismhypothesis.Inanexperiment56femaleparticipantshadanopportunitytohelpa
person in distress. In this setting, ease of escape without helping was manipulated. In
addition,onthebasisoftheirself-reportsofsituation-specificemotions,participantswere
dividedintoanempathic-concernandapersonal-distressgroup.Theresultsofthe2(ease
of escape)(cid:1)2 (predominant emotional response) design were in agreement with the
empathy–altruismhypothesis.Furtherresultsindicatedthatintheeasy-escapecondition
an altruistic motivation prevailed, whereas in the difficult-escape condition an egoistic
motivation was more dominant. Besides the full scale, two subscales of social
responsibility wereformed: MoralFulfilment ofthe JustifiedExpectations ofOthers and
Adherence to Social Prescriptions. The full social responsibility scale was significantly
relatedtohelpfulnessonlyinthedifficult-escapecondition.Furtheranalysesincludingthe
subscales showed that the component Moral Fulfilment of the Justified Expectations of
Others correlated positively with helping in the easy-escape condition. Results were
interpreted as showing that specific profiles of personality variables are associated with
helpfulness in the easy-escape and difficult-escape conditions. Copyright # 2004 John
Wiley &Sons, Ltd.
Prosocial behaviour is—like behaviour in general—a function of the person and the
environment(Lewin,1951).Theroleofsituationalvariablesasdeterminantsofprosocial
behaviourhasbeeninvestigatedinmanystudies.Oneresearchprogramme,whichisbased
on the empathy–altruism hypothesis, isofspecialsignificance(Batson, 1991). Thebasic
idea is that empathic concern, as a situation-specific response of an observer witnessing
another person’s plight, motivates altruistic behaviour, which is mainly performed as an
attempttoreducetheotherperson’ssuffering.Therefore,empathicconcernisunderstood
asatrulyaltruisticmotivation,incontrasttoegoisticmotivation,whichisdirectedtowards
*Correspondenceto:Hans-WernerBierhoff,FacultyofPsychology,Ruhr-UniversityBochum,GAFO04/918,
D-44780Bochum,Germany.E-mail:[email protected]
Received 1 September 2003
Copyright# 2004 JohnWiley&Sons, Ltd. Accepted26 November 2003
352 H.-W. Bierhoff andE. Rohmann
the reduction of personal distress, another situation-specific response of witnesses of
emergencies.
From this distinction, an empirically testable hypothesis was derived: as long as
personal distress is stronger than empathic concern, the observer will choose that action
alternative that promises the least cost and the highest reward. It is likely that such a
motivational state will lead the observer to leave the situation in which he or she is
confronted with another person’s suffering if a direct escape route is available. The
assumption is made that the observer’s personal distress is alleviated after leaving the
situation in which the victim is present because it is directly connected with the stress
experienced by the observer in the situation. After coping with the stress by leaving the
situation, personal distress is reduced even if the suffering of the victim continues. In
contrast,whenempathicconcernisstrongerthanpersonaldistress,prosocialbehaviouris
predictedtobelikely,independentoftheavailabilityofanexitoption.Thisissobecause
the activation of empathic concern is dependent on the continuation of the victim’s
suffering,sothatsimplyleavingthesituationisnogoodoption.Knowledgeofthevictim’s
suffering contributes to continuing empathic concern, which will be reduced only if the
sufferingisalleviated,eitherthroughtheinterventionofthewitnessortheinterventionof
another person.
The empathy–altruism hypothesis was tested in an empathy(cid:1)ease of escape
design. Prosocial behaviour is predicted to be likely in those conditions in which
empathic concern predominates (independent of situational constraints), and in the
difficult-escape condition,in which personaldistresspredominates.Lesshelpfulness
is predicted only for those persons who are strongly motivated by personal distress
and who have an exit option available. This hypothesis leads to the prediction of a
statistical interaction between empathy and ease of escape. The empirical
confirmation of the hypothesis hinges on the comparison between the predominantly
distressed persons who are able to easily withdraw from the suffering of the victim
andthosepersonswhoeitherpredominantlyfeelempathicconcernorpredominantly
feel personal distress but have no face-saving option to leave without helping the
victim. The alternative hypothesis of egoistically motivated witnesses states that
prosocial behaviour will be likely in the difficult-escape conditions and much less
likelyintheeasy-escapeconditionsindependentoftheobserver’smotivationalstate.
This hypothesis predicts a significant main effect of ease of escape. The level of
prosocial behaviour of empathically concerned witnesses who meet the suffering
victim in the easy-escape condition is crucial from a theoretical point of view. The
question is whether their level of prosocial behaviour corresponds to the level of the
‘prosocials’inthedifficult-escapeconditionortothelevelofthe‘egoists’intheeasy-
escape condition. Note that being a ‘prosocial’ is not equivalent to being driven by
empathicconcern.Therefore,itisnotsufficientforanempiricaltestoftheempathy–
altruismhypothesistocontrastthe‘easy-escape’conditionwiththe‘difficult-escape’
condition because the emotional state that is triggered by the situation is of crucial
importance. In several studies (summarized by Batson, Fultz, & Schoenrade, 1987)
the expected pattern of results was found.
Asecondtheoreticalapproachtothepredictionofprosocialbehaviouremphasizesthe
otherdeterminantofbehaviourmentionedbyLewin(1951):theperson.Inseveralstudies
it has been shown that dispositional empathy and social responsibility are the core
variablesofthealtruisticpersonality(cf.,Bierhoff,2002a).Specifically,theassumptionof
analtruisticpersonalityisbasedontheexpectationthatpeoplewhoscorehighonsocial
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Altruistic personality and empathy–altruism hypothesis 353
responsibilityalsoscorehighondispositionalempathy.Inaccordancewiththealtruistic-
personality hypothesis, empirical studies showthat measuresof the altruistic personality
predictprosocialbehaviourinthelaboratory(Staub,1974)aswellasinthefield(Bierhoff,
Klein, & Kramp, 1991; Oliner & Oliner, 1988; Omoto & Snyder, 1995; Penner &
Finkelstein, 1998).
Withrespecttothealtruistic personality,ouremphasishereisonsocialresponsibility,
which is definedasa moral obligation to fulfilthe justified expectations ofothersand to
adhere to social norms. The most widely used questionnaire for measuring social
responsibilitywasdevelopedbyBerkowitzandDaniels(1964).The22itemsofthisscale
are quite heterogeneous in content. Therefore, Bierhoff (2000, 2002b) suggested to
distinguishbetweentwodimensionsofsocialresponsibility.Thestatement‘Iamthekind
of person that people can count on’ illustrates the dimension Moral Fulfilment of the
JustifiedExpectationsofOthers,whereasthestatement‘Whenapersondoesnotreportall
hisincomeinordertogetoutofpayingsomeofhistaxes,itisjustasbadasstealingmoney
fromthegovernment’fitsthedimensionAdherencetoSocialPrescriptions.Whereasthe
firststatementreferstobehaviouronwhichotherscanrely,thesecondstatementrefersto
the question of whether a person acts in correspondence with social standards of
behaviour.Thisdistinctionisrelatedtothewellknowncontrastbetweenshameandguilt.
Whereastheviolationofinternalstandardsofappropriatebehaviourislikelytoelicitguilt
feelings,theviolationofexternalstandardsislikelytoproduceshame(Feshbach,Weiner,
& Bohart, 1996, p. 423). Therefore, Moral Fulfilment of the Justified Expectations of
Others corresponds with guilt avoidance and Adherence to Social Prescriptions with
shameavoidance.
Socialresponsibilityisanorientationwhichispresumablyrelevantinalargenumberof
social situations. One areawhich is of special significance is prosocial behaviour. Those
who follow the notion of social responsibility are likely to act more prosocially than
peoplewhoexpresslessofsuchanorientation.Empiricalstudiesshowthatthishypothesis
tends to be confirmed, although the evidence is not as consistent as one might wish. For
example, Carlo, Eisenberg, Troyer, Switzer, and Speer (1991) reported that social
responsibilitywasasignificantpredictorofprosocialbehaviourinadultswhentheycould
easily leavethesituationwithout helpingandwhentheneed forhelpwashigh (i.e.high
emotional evocativeness). A high need for help may contribute to the activation of the
normofresponsibility.BerkowitzandDaniels(1964)showedthatsocialresponsibilityas
anindividualdifferencevariablewaspositivelycorrelatedwithhelpingwhenthenormof
socialresponsibilitywasmadesalient.Inaddition,Staub(1974)reportedtheresultsofa
study on the relevance of the prosocial personality, which show in general that the
prosocialpersonalityisaviableconceptandmorespecificallythatthesocialresponsibility
scalecorrelatedpositivelywithprosocialbehaviour.Whereastheseresultswereobtained
inthelaboratory,thefieldstudyofOlinerandOliner(1988)ofrescuersofJewsduringthe
Nazi terror showed that people who rescued Jews had higher scores on the social
responsibility scale thanpeoplefromacontrolgroup whodidnotinterveneonbehalfof
Nazivictims.
Social responsibility seems to be a part of human nature. This was demonstrated in a
twin study by Neiderhiser, Reiss, and Hetherington (1996). Besides the genetic
component, however, an environmental component was visible, because changes in
social responsibility across a time span of three years were better explained by
environmentalfactorsthathadoperatedonadolescents.Inaccordancewiththis,cultural
differences between India and the US in social responsibility were reported (Miller,
Copyright#2004JohnWiley&Sons,Ltd. Eur.J.Pers.18:351–365(2004)
354 H.-W. Bierhoff andE. Rohmann
Bersoff, & Harwood, 1990). Whereas Indian respondents applied the norm of
responsibilityinabroadersensetoincludefriendsandstrangersbesidesfamilymembers,
Americansweremorerestrictiveintheirapplicationofthenormtofamilymembersonly.
Thesignificanceofthenormofsocialresponsibilityisalsohighlightedbythefactthatit
is a cornerstone of the altruistic personality, which in addition is characterized by high
dispositional empathy (Penner & Finkelstein, 1998). Although positive correlations
between social responsibility and dispositional empathy were obtained, the level of
associationisquitemoderate.InastudybyBierhoff,Klein,andKramp(1991)theroleof
socialresponsibilityinthewillingnesstointerveneonbehalfofvictimsoftrafficaccidents
was confirmed.
Referring to the altruistic personality, Batson, Bolen, Cross, and Neuringer-Benefiel
(1986)madetheassumptionthatitisrelatedtoegoisticmotivation.Theyassumedthatin
the difficult-escape condition an egoistic goal of the observer is operative, namely the
avoidance of guilt and shame. It was expected that under these circumstances a positive
correlationwithmeasuresofthealtruisticpersonalitywouldoccur.Incorrespondencewith
this assumption, measures of the altruistic personality correlated positively with helping
onlyinthedifficult-escapecondition (butnotintheeasy-escapecondition).Specifically,
self-esteem, ascription of responsibility, and empathy were significantly associated with
helping in the difficult-escape condition. These results confirm the assumption that
measures of the altruistic personality are positively related to helping but only in the
difficult-escape condition, which was assumed to activate a more egoistic motivation
becauseoftheanticipationofguiltandshame.Therefore,Batsonetal.(1986),referringto
the altruistic personality, speak of ‘pseudoaltruistic personality characteristics’ (p. 213).
Indeed, the pattern of results has ironic implications for the concept of altruistic
personality because it unfolds its influence under situational conditions that presumably
bring about an egoisticmotivation.
In another experiment by Fultz, Batson, Fortenbach, McCarthy, and Varney (1986,
Experiment2)respondentsindicatedtheirlevelofhelpfulnessaftertheywereconfronted
with the fate of Janet, who felt lonely andneeded company. In this context,measures of
empathicconcernandpersonaldistresswereobtained.Inaddition,dispositionalempathy
wasmeasuredontheInterpersonalReactivityIndex(Davis,1994).Resultsindicatedthat
dispositional empathy tended to be positively associated with helpfulness. In addition,
empathic concern was positively correlated with helping (especially in an anonymous
situation), and this correlation remained significant after controlling for dispositional
empathy.Thecorrelationbetweenempathicconcernandhelpingwasalsosignificantafter
partiallingoutpersonaldistress,meaningthatthepureempathicemotionfromwhichthe
variance due to personal distress was removed predicted the level of helpfulness. In
contrast, personal distress did not significantly correlate with helping (with or without
partialling outempathic concern).
To date, the contradiction between the concept of the altruistic personality and the
results found by Batson and his co-workers in the context of the empathy–altruism
hypothesis has not really been resolved. On the one hand, the altruistic personality is an
intuitively plausible approach, which corresponds with everyday experience and the
resultsofempiricalstudies.Ontheotherhand,ifthedistinctionbetweeneasy-escapeand
difficult-escape conditions is taken into account, the concept of the altruistic personality
vanishes.
In the original experimental scenario that was used to test the empathy–altruism
hypothesis observers watch Elaine, a confederate of the experimenter, as she seemingly
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Altruistic personality and empathy–altruism hypothesis 355
takespartinalearningexperiment:theobserversaretoldthatinthecourseoftenaversive
trials,inwhichElaineissupposedtosolveintellectualtasks,sheisrandomlygivenelectric
shocks(Batson,Duncan,Ackerman,Buckley,&Birch,1981).Inthisexperimentalsetting,
which was supposedly designed to study learning under stressful conditions, ease of
escapefrom the situationwithouthelping was manipulated.
Ofspecialrelevanceinthecontextofthepresentresearcharestudiesinwhichempathic
concernandpersonaldistressweremeasured.Empathicconcernisassumedtobehighifa
person indicates that he or she feels warm, soft-hearted, and compassionate when faced
withthesufferingvictim.Personaldistressisexpressedbyfeelingalarmed,troubled,and
upset in the same situation. To indicate the relative dominance of empathic concern and
personal distress, a difference index was calculated by subtracting the personal distress
scorefromtheempathicconcernscore.Thisindexofpredominantemotionalresponseis
positive if empathic concern is higher than personal distress and negative if personal
distressisstrongerthanempathicconcern.Empirically,amediansplitwasperformedon
thedifferencescore,leadingtothedistinctionoftwogroupsofpersonswhoareassumed
tobeeitheraltruisticallyoregoisticallymotivated.Incorrespondencewiththeempathy–
altruismhypothesis,resultsindicatethataltruisticallymotivatedpersonshelpedasuffering
victiminboththeeasy-escapeandthedifficult-escapecondition.Incontrast,egoistically
motivatedpersonswerequitehelpful(andinfactashelpfulasthealtruisticallymotivated
persons) in the difficult-escape condition, whereas their level of helpfulness was
considerably lower inthe easy-escape condition (Batsonet al., 1987).
An intriguing pattern of correlations was predicted between empathic concern and
personaldistress,respectively,ontheonehandandprosocialbehaviourontheotherhand
because it was assumed that the correlations would differ depending on ease of escape
(Batson, Bolen, Cross, & Neuringer-Benefiel, 1986). Specifically, it was predicted that
empathic concern would be positively correlated with helpfulness in the easy-escape
conditionbecausethissituationwasassumedtoelicitanaltruisticmotivation.Incontrast,
in the difficult-escape condition it was assumed that an egoistic motivation would be
elicited,renderingalowcorrelationbetweenempathicconcernandprosocialbehaviour.In
anexperiment,empathicconcernandpersonaldistressweremeasuredbesidespersonality
variables that are related to the altruistic personality (i.e. social responsibility,
responsibility denial, and dispositional empathy). Contrary to expectations, the zero-
ordercorrelationofempathicconcernwithhelpfulnesswashigherinthedifficult-escape
conditionthanintheeasy-escapecondition.Thispatternofcorrelationswastheopposite
of what Toi and Batson (1982) had found; they reported—in accordance with
predictions—ahighercorrelationintheeasy-escapeconditionthaninthedifficult-escape
condition. After partialling out the personality variables (plus birth order) the pattern of
correlations corroborated the assumptions because a positive and significant partial
correlation wasobtainedintheeasy-escape condition,whereasthesamecorrelation was
aroundzerointhedifficult-escapecondition.Incontrast,personaldistresswasunrelatedto
helpfulness inbothexperimental conditions.These results (in combinationwith thoseof
Toi and Batson, 1982) are interpreted as support for the notion that empathic concern,
whichisstatisticallyindependentfrompersonalityscales,motivatesaltruisticbehaviourin
the easy-escape condition, where only the presence of the altruistic goal is assumed to
influencewhetherthe observerof thevictimis ready tointervene onher behalf ornot.
In the present study, we combined predictions from the empathy–altruism hypothesis
withpredictionsfromthealtruistic-personalityhypothesis.Therelationbetweensituation
and personality factors refers to the contrast between states and traits. More specifically,
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356 H.-W. Bierhoff andE. Rohmann
Batson (1991) emphasizes emotional states in the situation, whereas the altruistic-
personalityhypothesisfocusesontraits.Fromthisonemightinferthattraitsasexogenous
variablesarereflectedinempathicconcernandpersonaldistress,becauseitispossiblethat
traitspredeterminetherangeofemotionsthatwillbeactivatedinaspecificsituation.But
fromtheresultsthatwerereportedbyBatsonetal.(1986)weknowthatthecorrelations
betweenpersonalitymeasures(e.g.socialresponsibilityanddispositionalempathy)onthe
onehandandempathicconcernandpersonaldistressontheotherhandarequite low.In
addition, personality measures correlate similarly with both empathic concern and
personal distress. For example, perspective taking as a subscale of the empathy
questionnaire(Davis,1994)correlatedr¼0.27withempathicconcernandr¼0.31with
personal distress, respectively. The correlations of social responsibility with emotional
states were very low (r¼(cid:2)0.05 and r¼(cid:2)0.06, respectively). In conclusion, the state
variables(i.e.empathicconcernandpersonaldistress)donotreflectmuchinfluenceofthe
personality measures.
We replicated the Elaine experiment by contrasting a difficult-escape with an easy-
escape condition and considered correlations between empathic concern and helping on
theonehandandsocialresponsibilityandhelpingontheotherhandseparatelyineachof
these conditions. Specifically,four hypotheseswere investigated.
Thefirsthypothesisisthattheinteractioneffectintheempathy(cid:1)easeofescapedesign
will be replicated. This pattern was consistently found in the studies summarized by
Batsonetal.(1987),whousedtheindexofpredominantemotionalresponse(distressscore
subtractedfromempathyscore)asthebasisfortheclassificationofobserversofElaineas
either high or low in empathic concern. Note that support for the hypothesis would
contributetocross-nationalgeneralizabilityofresearchfindingsontheempathy–altruism
hypothesis,whichasfarasweknowhasonlybeenconfirmedinAmericanlaboratoriesto
date.
The second hypothesis is that the relative strength of emotional response is positively
correlated with helping in the easy-escape condition but not in the difficult-escape
condition. That is, the easy-escape condition willelicitanaltruistic motivation, which is
notthe case in the difficult-escape condition.
Thethirdhypothesisisthatsocialresponsibilityispositivelycorrelatedwithhelpingin
thedifficult-escapecondition.AccordingtoBatsonetal.(1986),measuresofthealtruistic
personalityarerelatedtoprosocialbehaviouronlyinthedifficult-escapecondition.Infact,
theyfoundsuchcorrelationsforresponsibilitydenialanddispositionalempathybutnotfor
social responsibility, which did not correlate with helpfulness in either condition. In our
study a measure of social responsibility was used that includes the same 22 items as
originally developed by Berkowitz and Daniels in their social responsibility scale. The
revisedquestionnaireallowsforthedistinctionbetweentwoseparatecomponentsofsocial
responsibility:MoralFulfilmentoftheJustifiedExpectationsofOthersandAdherenceto
Social Prescriptions. Specifically, we predicted that Moral Fulfilment of the Justified
Expectations of Others is positively related to prosocial behaviour in the easy-escape
condition, whereas Adherence to Social Prescriptions is positively related to prosocial
behaviourinthedifficult-escapecondition.Thishypothesisisbasedonthepropositionthat
Moral Fulfilment of the Justified Expectations of Others constitutes the other-oriented
componentofsocialresponsibility,whereasAdherencetoSocialPrescriptionsrepresents
the self-oriented component.
With the fourth hypothesis we enter new ground. It is related to the assumption of
Batson et al. (1986) that the easy-escape condition primarily elicits an altruistic
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Altruistic personality and empathy–altruism hypothesis 357
motivation,whereasthedifficult-escapeconditionprimarilyelicitsanegoisticmotivation.
Earlier studies have shown that interpersonal attraction is related to helpfulness.
Specifically, the more the helper liked the help-recipient, the more readiness to respond
prosociallyonbehalfofthehelp-recipientwasregistered(Baron,1971;Pandey&Griffitt,
1974). It can be assumed that this association expresses the operation of an egoistic
motivationofthehelperbecauseitshouldbemorerewardingtosupportanattractiveother
than a less attractive other. High interpersonal attraction presumably reflects a more
positive interpersonal evaluation. It is tapped by the Interpersonal Judgment Scale (IJS),
which was developed in research on the attraction paradigm by Byrne (1971). For
example,attractionasmeasuredbytheIJSisapositivelinearfunctionoftheproportionof
similarattitudesexpressedbyastranger,andpersonswhobelongtoattitudinallysimilar
groupsexpressmorecohesioninthegroup(Castore&DeNinno,1977).Weproposethat
theattraction–helpinglinkwillonlyapplyinthedifficult-escapecondition,whereasinthe
easy-escape condition interpersonal attraction will not be related to helping at all. This
assumption results from Batson’s argument that in the easy-escape condition altruistic
motivation is dominant, which should be independent from whether the helper likes or
dislikesthehelp-recipient.Inthedifficult-escapeconditionegoisticmotivationdetermines
thechoiceofabehaviouraloption,whichmostprobablytakesinterpersonalattractioninto
accountbecauseit is morerewardingto help alikedotherthan a disliked other.
Method
Sample and procedure
Fifty-ninewomenagedbetween20and33tookpartintheexperiment(meanage24years),
nearlyallofwhomwerestudents.Oneparticipanthadgraduatedandworkedasascientist,
and another one was a social worker. Among the students 47% studied social sciences,
20% natural sciences, and 27% languages. On average, students had studied for 5.7
semesters.
Theexperimentwasconductedbytwofemaleexperimenters.Experimenter1instructed
participantsthattheaimoftheexperimentwastoinvestigatetheperformanceofaperson
workingunderstress,whichtheyweretoobserve.Thetaskofthetargetperson,whowasa
confederate of the experimenter, was to recall digit numbers while electric shocks were
beingadministeredrandomly.Theparticipantsweretoldthattheelectricshockswouldbe
distributed among the trials in such a way that they were not contingent with mistakes.
Rather,theyweretofunctionasanaversivebackgroundinthelearningsituation,theeffect
of which onperformance supposedly was the research topic.
Thetargetperson(the‘learner’)satinanobservationroomwiredtoanapparatusthat
createdtheimpressionthatitwasanelectroshockgenerator.Avideocamerawasinstalled
in the observation room. Observers were informed that they would see the live video
recording on a TV monitor in the room they were in, which was next to the observation
room the participants had walked through before. To make the situation more credible,
the participants personallymet theconfederate. Theparticipants were led tobelievethat
therolesoftargetpersonandobserverweredeterminedbychance.However,inrealitythe
participantwasalwaysgiventheroleoftheobserver‘bychance’.Unknowntotheparti-
cipants they saw a video recording that had been pre-recorded. The task of the observer
was to closely monitorthe learning performanceof the targetperson.
Ease of escape was manipulated in the instructions. In the easy-escape condition the
participantswereinformedthattheyhadtoobservetwotrialsofthelearningexperiment
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358 H.-W. Bierhoff andE. Rohmann
even though a total of 10 trials would have to be conducted. In the difficult-escape
conditionparticipantswereinformedthattheywouldhavetoobservetentrials.Thirty-one
participantswereruninthefirstconditionand27inthesecond.Oneparticipanthadtobe
eliminated because the data concerning the condition shewas assigned to had been lost.
Two other participants did not follow through the experiment until the end, leaving the
data of56 participants for the testofthe hypotheses.1
Dependent variables
Aftertwotrialsthetargetpersonaskedforabreakandaglassofwater.Onthemonitorthe
participantssawthatthesecondexperimenteraskedthetargetpersonhowshefelt.When
she answered that she felt stressed, the experimenter suggested that she would ask the
observer whether she would be willing to trade roles with the target person for the
remainingtrials.Afterashortwhilethesecondexperimenter,whowasblindwithrespect
totheexperimentalcondition,askedtheparticipantwhethershewouldbewillingtoserve
as target person. Note that the participants in the easy-escape condition were allowed to
leave the experimental room after the second trial, whereas participants in the difficult-
escape conditionbelievedtheywouldhaveto observeeight additional trials.
Thedependentvariablewasprosocialbehaviour,whichwasmeasuredasthenumberof
trials that the participants were willing to take over. This measure varied between 0 (no
willingnesstohelp)and8(willingnesstohelpineachoftheremainingtrials).Inspection
of the frequency distribution revealed that many participants were clustered at the
endpoints of the scale, with 24 women offering no help at all, 19 women offering
maximum help, and the other women scattered in between. Therefore, we recoded the
response scale to distinguish between three levels of helping: low (n¼24), intermediate
(n¼13) and high (n¼19). All analyses were also run with the original response scale.
Results showed only minor variations. In the result section we report the results for the
recoded scale ofhelpfulness only.
In addition, measures of empathic concern and personal distress were obtained.
Participants were asked to assess their current feelings on 21 adjective scales (from
1¼little to 7¼very much). In accordance with previous research, two factors were
extracted from the correlation matrix (principal component, Varimax rotation). Three
eigenvalues weregreater than one. The first two eigenvaluesaccounted for 56.8% ofthe
total variance. Whereas the first factor was interpreted as personal distress, the second
factorrepresentedempathicconcern.Threeadjectiveswereselectedthatrepresentedeach
factor, with two restrictions: the adjective should correspond with the list of distress
adjectivesandempathicadjectives,respectively,assummarizedbyBatson(1987,p.98)in
his Table 1, and it should display no double loadings. From this the empathic concern
index was computed as the mean of the assessments of soft-hearted, tender, and warm,
whereas the personal distress index was built on alarmed, grieved, and troubled. The
averagescoreofempathicconcernandpersonaldistress,respectively,wereM¼3.86and
M¼4.12. A t-test for paired observations showed that the means do not differ
1Aftertheexperiment(butbeforedebriefing)participantswereprobedforsuspicion.Thirteenof56respondents
indicatedthattheyhadsomesuspicionatsomepointduringtheexperiment.Theserespondentsweredistributed
almost equally between experimental conditions, (cid:1)2¼0.43, p¼0.37 (Fisher’s exact test). In addition, we
correlatedwhetherornotparticipantsfeltsuspiciouswiththeothervariablesmeasured.Onlyonecorrelation
provedtobesignificant:respondentswhoindicatedthattheyweresuspiciousscoredhigheronthebeliefinthe
controlofpowerfulothersthanthosewhoexpressednosuspiciousness,r(53)¼0.29,p<0.05.Takentogether,
theseresultsindicatethatsuspiciousnessdidnotinteractwithexperimentalconditionsandwasnotsystematically
correlatedwithaltruisticpersonality.
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Altruistic personality and empathy–altruism hypothesis 359
Table1. Helpfulnessdependingoneaseofescapeandpredominantemotionalresponse
Predominantemotionalresponse
Easeofescape Empathy Distress
Easy 2.06(17) 1.39(13)
Difficult 2.00(13) 2.08(12)
Helpfulnesswasmeasuredonathree-pointscale(1¼lowhelp;3¼highhelp).ninbrackets.
significantly, t(54)¼1.51, ns. The internal consistency was (cid:2)¼0.69 for the empathic
concernindexand(cid:2)¼0.82forthepersonaldistressindex.Fromthetwoscoresforeach
participant,anindexofrelativestrengthofempathywasformedbysubtractingthedistress
scorefromtheempathyscore.Highervaluesonthisindexofrelativeempathyindicatethat
empathic concernis relatively stronger than personal distress. Themeanvalue acrossall
participants was M¼(cid:2)0.26.
Socialresponsibility
After the experiment was over participants filled out a questionnaire that included
measures of empathic concern, personal distress, and altruistic personality. The German
version of the social responsibility scale, which was originally developed by Berkowitz
andDaniels(1964),wasused.Bierhoff(2000,2002b)distinguishedtwosubscales,which
aremeasuredbyeightitemseach:MoralFulfilmentoftheJustifiedExpectationsofOthers
and Adherence to Social Prescriptions. In addition, an overall measure of social
responsibility is based on all 22 items. The items were assessed on six-point scales
(1¼completely wrong, 6¼completely right). The internal consistencies of the scales
were as follows: overall social responsibility (cid:2)¼0.76, Moral Fulfilment of the Justified
Expectations of Others(cid:2)¼0.73, and Adherenceto Social Prescriptions (cid:2)¼0.75.
InterpersonalJudgmentScale
FollowingByrne’s(1971)researchontheattractionparadigmtheInterpersonalJudgment
Scalewasemployed.Itconsistsoftwoitems,whichrefertolikingandworkingtogether.
In the present research the scale reached an internal consistency of (cid:2)¼0.85, the
correlation between the two itemsbeingr(54)¼0.75, p<001.
RESULTS
The first hypothesis refers to the means of prosocial behaviour in the four cells of the 2
(ease of escape)(cid:1)2 (predominant emotional response) design. Following Batson et al.
(1987)amediansplitwasperformedontheindexofrelativestrengthofempathicconcern
with 45.5% of participants in the personal-distress group (minimum¼(cid:2)3.67, max-
imum¼(cid:2)0.33) and 54.5% in the empathic concern group (minimum¼0.00, max-
imum¼2.67). The empathy–altruism hypothesis was tested by a planned comparison
contrastingthethreeconditionsinwhichahighlevelofprosocialbehaviourwasexpected
with thelow-empathy,easy-escape cell,inwhich alowlevelofprosocialbehaviourwas
predicted. The orthogonal contrast was significant, supporting the empathy–altruism
Copyright#2004JohnWiley&Sons,Ltd. Eur.J.Pers.18:351–365(2004)
360 H.-W. Bierhoff andE. Rohmann
hypothesis,t(51)¼2.45,p<0.05.Thecombinedmeanofthethreeconditionsinwhicha
high level of prosocial behaviour was expected was 2.05, and the mean in the low-
empathy,easy-escapeconditionwas1.39(seeTable1).Thisanalysiswascorroboratedby
a regression analysis (cf. Cohen & Cohen, 1975), in which the product term of ease of
escapeandindexofrelativestrengthofempathicconcernsignificantlypredictedprosocial
behaviour,b¼0.22, t(1,53)¼2.02, p<0.05.
Table 2 contains the correlations among the situation-specific measures. First, a
significantpositivecorrelationwasfoundbetweenempathicconcernandpersonaldistress.
It is on a level of association that was also found in other studies using the same
methodology. Such an association is expected for several reasons, which are more fully
discussedbyBatson(1987,pp.97–98).Thecorrelationsofempathicconcernandpersonal
distress, respectively, with predominant emotional response reflect how the emotional
overallindexwasformed.Finally,theIJSwasunrelatedtotheemotionscales,indicating
that self-report ofemotionand interpersonal attraction wereindependent ofeach other.
Thesecondhypothesispredictsadifferentialpatternofcorrelationsdependingonease
of escape without helping. Specifically, predominant emotional response is expected to
correlate significantly with helpfulness only in the easy-escape condition, whereas
interpersonal attraction was assumed to correlate with helpfulness only in the difficult-
escape condition. The relevant correlations are summarized in Table 3. In general, the
results support the hypothesis. Specifically, the overall index of emotional response
correlatedsignificantlywithprosocialbehaviourintheeasy-escapecondition,whereasthe
signofthecorrelationwasreversedinthedifficult-escapecondition.Becausethevariances
in both conditions were comparable a test of differences between correlations from
independent samples was performed. This test yielded a significant result, t¼1.80,
p<0.05, one sided. Because higher values reflect more empathy on this index, the
significantcorrelationcorrespondswiththeexpectationthatintheeasy-escapecondition
an altruistic motivation influenced helpfulness.
The fourth hypothesis stated that interpersonal attraction is only correlated with
prosocial behaviour in the difficult-escape condition because the attraction–helping link
presupposes the dominance of egoistic motivation. The pattern of results, which is
summarized in Table 3, supports this hypothesis. Whereas attraction and prosocial
behaviourhave36%ofcommonvarianceinthedifficult-escapecondition,theoverlapis
very small in the easy-escape condition, which presumably elicited an altruistic
motivation. This pattern of results was hardly affected by partialling out empathic
concernandpersonaldistress.Becausethevariancesinbothconditionsweresignificantly
different in the Levene test2 (p<0.01) the test of differences between correlations from
Table2. Correlationsofsituation-specificstatemeasures
States 1 2 3 4
1.Empathicconcern — 0.46*** 0.38** 0.18
2.Personaldistress — (cid:2)0.65*** 0.14
3.Relativeempathy — 0.01
4.IJS —
IJS¼InterpersonalJudgmentScale.N¼55.
**p<0.01.***p<0.001.
2TheLevenetestisbasedontheF-distribution.Thevariancesoftwosamplesarecomparedforequality(cf.Hays
&Winkler,1970).
Copyright#2004JohnWiley&Sons,Ltd. Eur.J.Pers.18:351–365(2004)