The effect of outgroup status and perspective-taking on empathy and outgroup helping

2013 IJRSP – Volume 2 Issue 2

Author/s:

Mashuri, Ali*
Department of Psychology, University of Brawijaya, Indonesia (alimashuri76@ub.ac.id)

Hasanah, Nur
Department of Psychology, University of Brawijaya, Indonesia (n.hasanah6874@ub.ac.id)

Rahmawati, Intan
Department of Psychology, University of Brawijaya, Indonesia (intan_dps@yahoo.com)

Abstract:

An important part of our daily lives is characterized with helping interactions, which not only take place in interpersonal context but also in intergroup context. Helping interactions in intergroup context typically occur in which people belonging to certain social category (ingroup) are willing to help others belonging to different social category (outgroup).This research aims to examine, firstly, how outgroup helping and empathy are affected by outgroup status and perspective-taking. Secondly, this research is to test the role of empathy in mediating the effect of outgroup status and perspective-taking on outgroup helping. The results are in line with all hypotheses specified in demonstrating that both lower outgroup status than higher outgroup status and strong perspective-taking than weak perspective-taking elicited higher degree of empathy and outgroup helping. We also predicted and found that empathy mediated the effect of outgroup status and perspective-taking on outgroup helping. Theoretical and practical implications of these research findings are discussed.

Keywords: outgroup status; perspective-taking; empathy; outgroup helping

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrsp.2012.149

*Corresponding Author