Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:02:47.180Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anxiety Reduces Empathy Toward Outgroup Members But Not Ingroup Members

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 September 2017

Kevin Arceneaux
Kevin Arceneaux*
Affiliation:
Professor of Political Science, Behavioral Foundations Lab Director, Institute for Public Affairs faculty affiliate, Temple University, 453 Gladfelter Hall, 1115 Polett Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA e-mail: arceneau@temple.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Substantial research concludes that favoritism toward members of people's ingroup, or ingroup bias, motivates people to oppose public programs that assist needy outgroup individuals. I argue that a gap in the empathic capacity for ingroup and outgroup members motivates and maintains ingroup bias in helping behavior and is sensitive to contextual cues that trigger anxiety. Using a novel experimental design, Study 1 demonstrates that anxiety exacerbates the outgroup empathy gap. Study 2 replicates these findings with an explicit measure of outgroup empathy. Study 3 shows that the outgroup empathy gap causes individuals to become less supportive of helping needy outgroup members. These studies suggest that opposition to welfare programs may go beyond simple prejudice.

Keywords

Ingroup biasempathywelfare attitudesracial prejudiceevolutionary psychology
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Experimental Political Science , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , Spring 2017 , pp. 68 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © The Experimental Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adams, Reginald B. Jr., Rule, Nicholas O., Franklin, Robert G. Jr., Wang, Elsie, Stevenson, Michael T., Yoshikawa, Sakiko, Nomura, Mitsue, Sato, Wataru, Kveraga, Kestutis, and Ambady, Nalini. 2010. “Cross-Cultural Reading the Mind in the Eyes: An fMRI Investigation.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 22 (1): 97–108.Google Scholar
Alesina, Alberto and Glaeser, Edward Ludwig. 2004. Fighting Poverty in the US and Europe: A World of Difference. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Allport, Gordon W. 1954. The Nature of Prejudice. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Banks, Antoine J. and Valentino, Nicholas A.. 2012. “Emotional Substrates of White Racial Attitudes.” American Journal of Political Science 56 (2): 286–97.Google Scholar
Baron Cohen, Simon. 2004. Essential Difference: Male and Female Brains and the Truth about Autism. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Baron-Cohen, Simon, Wheelwright, Sally, Hill, Jacqueline, Raste, Yogini, and Plumb, Ian. 2001. “The ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ Test Revised Version: A Study with Normal Adults, and Adults with Asperger Syndrome or High‐Functioning Autism.” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 42 (2): 241–51.Google Scholar
Batson, C. Daniel and Ahmad, Nadia. 2001. “Empathy-Induced Altruism in a Prisoner's Dilemma II: What if the Target of Empathy Has Defected?” European Journal of Social Psychology 31 (1): 25–36.Google Scholar
Brader, Ted, Valentino, Nicholas A., and Suhay, Elizabeth. 2008. “What Triggers Public Opposition to Immigration? Anxiety, Group Cues, and Immigration Threat.” American Journal of Political Science 52 (4): 959–78.Google Scholar
Brewer, Marilynn B. 1999. “The Psychology of Prejudice: Ingroup Love and Outgroup Hate?” Journal of Social Issues 55 (3): 429–44.Google Scholar
Brewer, Marilynn B. 2007. “The Importance of Being.” American Psychologist 62 (8): 728–38.Google Scholar
Buck, Ross. 2002. “The Genetics and Biology of True Love: Prosocial Biological Affects and the Left Hemisphere.” Psychological Review 109 (4): 739–44.Google Scholar
Cook, R., Brewer, R., Shah, P., and Bird, G.. 2013. “Alexithymia, Not Autism, Predicts Poor Recognition of Emotional Facial Expressions.” Psychological Science 24 (5): 723–732.Google Scholar
Cosmides, Leda and Tooby, John. 2004. “Evolutionary Psychology and the Emotions.” In Handbook of Emotions, eds. Lewis, Michael and Haviland-Jones, Jeannette M.. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Cottrell, Catherine A. and Neuberg, Steven L.. 2005. “Different Emotional Reactions to Different Groups: A Sociofunctional Threat-Based Approach to ‘Prejudice’” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 88 (5): 770–89.Google Scholar
Cuddy, Amy J. C., Rock, Mindi S., and Norton, Michael I.. 2007. “Aid in the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: Inferences of Secondary Emotions and Intergroup Helping.” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 10 (1): 107–18.Google Scholar
Davis, Mark. 1983. “Measuring Individual Differences in Empathy: Evi- dence for a Multidimensional Approach.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44 (1): 113–26.Google Scholar
de Waal, Frans B. M. 2008. “Putting the Altruism Back Into Altruism: The Evolution of Empathy.” Annual Review of Psychology 59 (1): 279–300.Google Scholar
Dovidio, John F. and Gaertner, Samuel L.. 2004. “Aversive Racism.” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 36: 1–52.Google Scholar
Dovidio, John F., Piliavin, Jane Allyn, Schroeder, David A., and Penner, Louis. 2006. The Social Psychology of Prosocial Behavior. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.Google Scholar
Faulkner, J., Schaller, M., Park, J. H., and Duncan, L. A.. 2004. “Evolved Disease-Avoidance Mechanisms and Contemporary Xenophobic Attitudes.” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 7 (4): 333–53.Google Scholar
Feldman, Stanley, Huddy, Leonie, Wronski, Julie, and Lown, Patrick. 2013. “Empathy and Support for the Welfare State: Ideological Consonance and Dissonance.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association.Google Scholar
Feldman, Stanley and Steenbergen, Marco R.. 2001. “The Humanitarian Foundation of Public Support for Social Welfare.” American Journal of Political Science: 45 (3): 658–77.Google Scholar
Gilens, Martin. 1999. Why Americans Hate Welfare: Race, Media, and the Politics of Antipoverty Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Harvey and Healy, Michael Jr. 1995. “The Graphical Presentation of a Collection of Means.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 158: 175–77.Google Scholar
Gray, Jeffrey Alan. 1987. The Psychology of Fear and Stress. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hatemi, Peter K., McDermott, Rose, Eaves, Lindon J., Kendler, Kenneth S., and Neale, Michael C.. 2013. “Fear as a Disposition and an Emotional State: A Genetic and Environmental Approach to Out-Group Political Preferences.” American Journal of Political Science 57 (2): 279–93.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Daniel. 2010. “Politicized Places: Explaining Where and When Immigrants Provoke Local Opposition.” American Political Science Review 104 (1): 40–60.Google Scholar
Johnson, J. D., Olivo, N., Gibson, N., Reed, W., and Ashburn-Nardo, L.. 2009. “Priming Media Stereotypes Reduces Support for Social Welfare Policies: The Mediating Role of Empathy.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 35 (4): 463–76.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Johnson, Kareem J. and Fredrickson, Barbara L.. 2005. “‘We All Look the Same to Me’ Positive Emotions Eliminate the Own-Race Bias in Face Recognition.” Psychological Science 16 (11): 875–81.Google Scholar
Kam, Cindy D. and Kinder, Donald R.. 2007. “Terror and Ethnocentrism: Foundations of American Support for the War on Terrorism.” Journal of Politics 69 (2): 320–38.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R. and Drake, Katherine W.. 2009. “Myrdal's Prediction.” Political Psychology 30 (4): 539–68.Google Scholar
Kuklinski, James H., Quirk, Paul J., Jerit, Jennifer, Schwieder, David, and Rich, Robert F.. 2000. “Misinformation and the Currency of Democratic Citizenship.” The Journal of Politics 62 (3): 790–816.Google Scholar
Lang, Peter J., Bradley, Margaret M., Cuthbert, Bruce N., others. 2008. International Affective Picture System (IAPS): Instruction Manual and Affective Ratings. The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, Gainesville, FL: University of Florida.Google Scholar
Leyens, Jacques-Philippe, Paladino, Paola M, Rodriguez-Torres, Ramon, Vaes, Jeroen, Demoulin, Stéphanie, Rodriguez-Perez, Armando, and Gaunt, Ruth. 2000. “The Emotional Side of Prejudice: The Attribution of Secondary Emotions to Ingroups and Outgroups.” Personality and Social Psychology Review 4 (2): 186–97.Google Scholar
Lopez, Anthony C. and McDermott, Rose. 2012. “Adaptation, Heritability, and the Emergence of Evolutionary Political Science.” Political Psychology 33 (3): 343–62.Google Scholar
MacLean, Paul D. 1985. “Brain Evolution Relating to Family, Play, and the Separation Call.” Archives of General Psychiatry 42 (4): 405.Google Scholar
McDermott, Rose. 2004. “The Feeling of Rationality: The Meaning of Neuroscientific Advances for Political Science.” Perspectives on Politics 2 (4): 691–706.Google Scholar
Orbell, John, Morikawa, Tomonori, Hartwig, Jason, Hanley, James, and Allen, Nicholas. 2004. “Machiavellian Intelligence as a Basis for the Evolution of Cooperative Dispositions.” American Political Science Review 98 (1): 1–15.Google Scholar
Peffley, Mark and Hurwitz, Jon. 2007. “Persuasion and Resistance: Race and the Death Penalty in America.” American Journal of Political Science 51 (4): 996–1012.Google Scholar
Petersen, Michael Bang. 2012. “Social Welfare as Small-Scale Help: Evolutionary Psychology and the Deservingness Heuristic.” American Journal of Political Science 56 (1): 1–16.Google Scholar
Petersen, Michael Bang. 2015. “Evolutionary Political Psychology: On the Origins and Structure of Heuristics and Biases in Politics.” Advances in Political Psychology 36 (Suppl. 1): 45–78.Google Scholar
Petersen, Michael Bang, Slothuus, Rune, Stubager, Rune, and Togeby, Lise. 2010. “Deservingness Versus Values in Public Opinion on Welfare: The Automaticity of the Deservingness Heuristic.” European Journal of Political Research 50 (1): 24–52.Google Scholar
Premack, David and Woodruff, Guy. 1978. “Does the Chimpanzee Have a Theory of Mind?” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1 (4): 515–26.Google Scholar
Preston, Stephanie D. and de Waal, Frans. 2002. “Empathy: Its Ultimate and Proximate Bases.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25 (01): 1–20.Google Scholar
Rawlins, Richard G. and Kessler, Matt J.. 1986. The Cayo Santiago Macaques: History, Behavior, and Biology. Albanay, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Rule, Nicholas O., Ambady, Nalini, Adams, Reginald B. Jr., and Macrae, C. Neil. 2008. “Accuracy and Awareness in the Perception and Categorization of Male Sexual Orientation.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95 (5): 1019–1028.Google Scholar
Sirin, Cigdem V., Villalobos, José D., and Valentino, Nicholas A.. 2016. “Group Empathy Theory: The Effect of Group Empathy on US Intergroup Attitudes and Behavior in the Context of Immigration Threats.” Journal of Politics 78 (3): 893–908.Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul M. and Hagen, Michael Gray. 1985. Race and Inequality: A Study in American Values. NJ: Chatham House Chatham.Google Scholar
Sniderman, Paul M., Hagendoorn, Louk, and Prior, Markus. 2004. “Predisposing Factors and Situational Triggers: Exclusionary Reactions to Immigrant Minorities.” The American Political Science Review 98 (1): 35–49.Google Scholar
Staub, Ervin. 2003. The Psychology of Good and Evil: Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tajfel, Henri, Billig, Michael G., Bundy, Robert P., and Flament, Claude. 1971. “Social Categorization and Intergroup Behaviour.” European Journal of Social Psychology 1 (2): 149–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vinette, Céline, Gosselin, Frédéric, and Schyns, Philippe G.. 2004. Cognitive Science 28 (2): 289–301.Google Scholar
Watson, David and Clark, Lee Anna. 1994. The PANAS-X: Manual for the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Expanded Form. Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa.Google Scholar
Winter, Nicholas J. G. 2006. “Beyond Welfare: Framing and the Racialization of White Opinion on Social Security.” American Journal of Political Science 50 (2): 400–420.Google Scholar
Wright, Matthew, Citrin, Jack, and Wand, Jonathan. 2012. “Alternative Measures of American National Identity: Implications for the Civic-Ethnic Distinction.” Political Psychology 33 (4): 469–82.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Arceneaux supplementary material

Arceneaux supplementary material 1

Download Arceneaux supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1.6 MB