CAREER: Building empathy through social psychological processes

职业：通过社会心理过程建立同理心

• 批准号: 1454518
• 负责人: Jamil Zaki
• 金额: $ 71.36万
• 依托单位: Stanford University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2021-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1454518&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Building; empathy; through; social

Empathy - sharing and understanding of others' emotions - serves as a social "glue" that produces generosity, strengthens social ties, and reduces prejudice. Despite its importance, empathy is also fragile, and often breaks down just when it is needed most. This is especially true in interactions between different social groups. People often dismiss the opinions of individuals with whom they disagree, fail to engage with the emotions of outgroup members, and avoid others' suffering. Empathic breakdowns have severe and wide-ranging consequences: producing polarizing ideological stalemates, fomenting conflict, and driving bullying in schools. Empathy is often considered a relatively stable characteristic that is not amenable to change. In contrast, Jamil Zaki (Stanford University) and colleagues have developed a novel theoretical approach, which proposes that empathy is a motivated process; thus, it could be modified by shifting the motives that may drive one towards or away from engaging in empathetic responses. This project will test two theoretical approaches that could shift motivational processes and "expand" individuals' empathy, especially in challenging intergroup situations. This research leverages two social psychological concepts - mindsets and social influence - to shift empathetic responses. Mindsets describe people's beliefs about psychological phenomena such as intelligence and personality. Whereas some people believe these characteristics are stable and unchangeable (so-called "fixed mindsets"), others believe these phenomena are malleable and under their control ("growth mindsets"). This project will test whether encouraging a growth mindset of empathy will cause shifts in motivation to engage in empathetic responses. The second concept, social influence, draws on findings that people are motivated to change their behavior, beliefs, and opinions to match those of others; therefore, providing a norm that others value empathy could consequently promote empathetic responses. This project will measure the effects of shifting mindsets and social norms on (i) individuals' ability to understand others' emotions, (ii) their willingness to take the perspective of people who differ from them, and (iii) the strength and diversity of their social relationships. Additionally, the research will test whether motivational shifts towards empathetic responses increase generous behaviors and decrease bullying among high school students. Overall, this work stands to make key advances both in the basic science of empathy and in how this science can be applied to critical social settings. With respect to basic science, this work will improve understanding of the process and mechanism through which empathy can be expanded, and also test a novel theory of empathy as a motivated process. With respect to application, this work can help to remedy some of the harmful consequences of empathic breakdowns including intergroup discrimination, bullying, and selfishness in the context of charitable giving.

同理心--分享和理解他人的情感--是一种社会“粘合剂”，可以产生慷慨，加强社会联系，减少偏见。尽管共情很重要，但它也很脆弱，往往在最需要的时候就崩溃了。 在不同社会群体之间的互动中尤其如此。人们经常忽视他们不同意的个人的意见，无法与外群体成员的情绪互动，避免他人的痛苦。共情的崩溃会产生严重而广泛的后果：产生两极分化的意识形态僵局，煽动冲突，并在学校中推动欺凌行为。移情通常被认为是一种相对稳定的特征，不容易改变。相比之下，斯坦福大学的贾米尔·扎基（Jamil Zaki）及其同事开发了一种新的理论方法，认为共情是一个有动机的过程;因此，可以通过改变可能驱使一个人进行或远离共情反应的动机来改变共情。这个项目将测试两种理论方法，可以改变动机过程和“扩大”个人的同理心，特别是在具有挑战性的群体间的情况。这项研究利用两个社会心理学概念--心态和社会影响--来改变移情反应。心态描述了人们对智力和个性等心理现象的信念。虽然有些人认为这些特征是稳定的，不可改变的（所谓的“固定心态”），其他人认为这些现象是可塑的，并在他们的控制下（“成长心态”）。这个项目将测试是否鼓励共情的成长心态会导致动机的转变，以从事共情反应。第二个概念是社会影响，它基于这样的发现：人们有动机改变自己的行为、信念和观点，以与他人的行为、信念和观点相匹配;因此，提供一个他人重视共情的规范，从而促进共情反应。该项目将衡量思维方式和社会规范的变化对（一）个人理解他人情绪的能力，（二）他们愿意采取与他们不同的人的观点，以及（三）他们的社会关系的强度和多样性的影响。此外，该研究还将测试动机向移情反应的转变是否会增加高中生的慷慨行为，减少欺凌行为。总的来说，这项工作在移情的基础科学以及如何将这门科学应用于关键的社会环境方面都取得了重大进展。在基础科学方面，这项工作将提高对共情扩展过程和机制的理解，并测试共情作为动机过程的新理论。在应用方面，这项工作可以帮助补救移情崩溃的一些有害后果，包括群体间的歧视，欺凌和自私的背景下，慈善捐赠。