Believing one can effectively help others both promotes prosocial acts and restrains harmful conduct.

Evidence

A sense of empathic self-efficacy at involving oneself in the plight of others both promotes prosocialness in the form of helpfulness, sharing, consoling, and supportiveness and curbs socially injurious conduct (Bandura, Caprara, Barbaranelli, Gerbino, & Pastorelli, 2003). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 650

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces Bandura’s construct of empathic self-efficacy — the sense that one can successfully engage with others’ suffering — as a distinct regulatory resource.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 650