Abstract
In this paper, we will examine and untangle a conflict mainly between a developmental psychologist, Martin Hoffman and a social psychologist, Daniel Batson. According to Hoffman, empathic distress, a vicarious feeling through empathy, is transformed into an altruistic motivation. Batson and others on the other hand, criticize Hoffman, claiming that empathic altruism has no relation with empathic distress. We will point out some problems with Batson’s position by referring to the results of fMRI experiments that suggest empathic distress and empathic altruism share a common basis, and defend Hoffman’s argument. This will also offer new insights into the evolution of empathy.
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Notes
Some more recent experimental observations also suggest that response by infants to a distressed person changes between 12 and 18 months (e.g., Matsuzawa et al. 2002).
One may think that the assumption about the rationality of people is added here, and that irrational people feeling empathic distress may not have such a motivation. But even if people are irrational and do not have such a motivation, the relation that Batson attacks is rejected after all.
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This paper was supported by NISSAN SCIENCE FUNDATION to the second author. We are grateful to Senji Tanaka for his helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.
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Nakao, H., Itakura, S. An Integrated View of Empathy: Psychology, Philosophy, and Neuroscience. Integr. psych. behav. 43, 42–52 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-008-9066-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12124-008-9066-7