Empathic emotion regulation in prosocial behavior and altruism
The emotions evoked in response to others’ distress are important for motivating concerned prosocial responses. But how various forms of emotional regulation shape prosocial responding is not yet well understood. When does regulation of empathy lead to prosocial motivation versus personal distress or apathy? We tested the role of empathic emotion regulation in promoting prosocial motivation and costly donations across two studies, first in a community sample and then in a sample of altruistic kidney donors and a matched comparison sample. Participants engaged in hopeful and distancing reappraisals while viewing images of others in distress, then decided whether to help by donating a portion of a monetary endowment to charity. Whereas hope was expected to evoke approach-based motivation indexed by increased donations, distance was expected to evoke avoidance-based motivation indexed by decreased donations. It was hypothesized that varying effects of the two reappraisals on positive and negative affect would influence donation decisions. Across both studies, both reappraisals decreased negative affect. Hopeful reappraisal also increased positive affect. Instructed reappraisal also altered donation behavior in the community sample: here, hopeful reappraisal resulted in higher donations than distancing reappraisal. Altruists were more prosocial overall, but the associations between affect and donation behavior in this group mirrored that of the hopeful reappraisal in the larger community sample, suggesting that altruists might adopt a more hopeful and compassionate appraisal by default. These findings further clarify the role of empathic emotion regulation in prosocial behavior and also independent effects of positive and negative affect.