Learning shapes which people evoke empathy and how strongly
Evidence
People are innately equipped with the expressive and receptive biological structures for vicarious activation of emotion. Although they are endowed with the capacity for vicarious arousal, learning experiences largely determine the level and pattern of empathic reactions. Through cognitive regulation, empathy can be elevated, eliminated, and selectively altered according to whose emotional experiences are vicariously arousing for given individuals. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 638
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
Related
- Empathy is selectively regulated by cognitive control to specific targets. (similarity 0.89)
- Empathic arousal is stronger toward those whose fate predicts one’s own. (similarity 0.83)
- Empathy is not a hard-wired reflexive response to others’ emotions (similarity 0.83)
- Empathy is a vicarious emotional state produced by perspective-taking (similarity 0.83)
- Human empathy is not a hard-wired reflexive response to others’ suffering. (similarity 0.83)
- Moral standards form from the reactions of emotionally attached others (similarity 0.82)
- Creating perceived connectedness converts counter-empathy back into genuine empathy. (similarity 0.79)
- Others’ emotions matter most when their states predict one’s own (similarity 0.78)
- Believing one can effectively help others both promotes prosocial acts and restrains harmful conduct. (similarity 0.78)