Empathy and correct mental state inferences both promote prosociality.
Sci Rep
; 12(1): 16979, 2022 10 10.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36217015
ABSTRACT
In a world with rapidly increasing population that competes for the earth's limited resources, cooperation is crucial. While research showed that empathizing with another individual in need enhances prosociality, it remains unclear whether correctly inferring the other's inner, mental states on a more cognitive level (i.e., mentalizing) elicits helping behavior as well. We applied a video-based laboratory task probing empathy and a performance measure of mentalizing in adult volunteers (N = 94) and assessed to which extent they were willing to help the narrators in the videos. We replicate findings that an empathy induction leads to more prosocial decisions. Crucially, we also found that correct mentalizing increases the willingness to help. This evidence helps clarify an inconsistent picture of the relation between mentalizing and prosociality.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Empatia
/
Mentalização
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
Limite:
Adult
/
Humans
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2022
Tipo de documento:
Article