The Role Of Empathy For Positive Emotion:Helping The Target Of Empathy Or Helping More People

Morelli et al.(2015)define empathy for positive emotion as the process and the ability to understand and vicariously share others' positive emotions.And tihe process and the ability to understand and vicariously share others' negative emotions is termed empathy for negative emotion by them.Empathy for positive emotion and empathy for negative emotion are two dictinct but highly related psychological structures.A lot of research now have showed that empathy plays an important role in energizing prosocial behavior.However,these studies mainly focused on the relationship between empathy for negative emotion and prosocial behavior;considerably,less attention has been paid to the relationship between empathy for positive emotion and prosocial behavior.In addition,in the existing research on the relationship between empathy and prosocial behavior,the recipients are mainly focused on the target of empathy,and helping behavior to the third person except for the target of empathy have not yet been involved.Through the manipulation of positive empathy,Our research will explore whether or not empathy for positive emotion can promote helping behavior to the target of empathy,and whether or not empathy for positive emotion can further promote helping behavior to the third person by manipulating empathy for positive emotion.Our research consists of two parts.The first part is the study on the evaluation of the effectiveness of empathic-induced material,and the second part is the study of the influence of empathy for positive emotion on helping behavior.In the first part,139 college students were evaluated for the effectiveness of empathic-induced material through a questionnaire platform.The results showed that the degree of happiness of the object in material individuals assessed(M=6.270)was significantly higher than the degree of sadness of the object in material individuals assessed(M=1.770).Thus,empathic-induced material was rated as valid.In the second part,we adopted the classic paradigm of Batson et al.(2007)to explore the influence of empathy for positive emotion on helping behavior to the the target of empathy and the third person by manipulating empathy for positive emotion among 105 college students.In this study,the single-factor between-subject design was used.The independent variable was empathy for positive emotion,which was divided into two levels:empathy for positive emotion condition and objective attitude condition.The dependent variable was helping behavior,including helping behavior to the target of empathy and helping behavior to the third person,with subjective and objective measures.Considering the single-factor between-subject design with great personal difference,this study adopted trait empathy for positive emotion,trait empathy for negative emotion and pre-experimental positive emotion as control variables to minimize their influence on the dependent variable as possible.The results are as follows:?Individuals' helping time to the target of empathy(M=4.151)under the condition of empathy for positive emotion is significantly higher than that of the objective attitude condition(M=2.817);there is no significant difference between individuals'donation of money to the target of empathy(M=3.094)under the condition of empathy for positive emotion and that of the objective attitude condition(M=3.192);?Positive emotion change and liking are both play a mediator role in the positive relationship between empathy for positive emotion and helping behavior to the target of empathy,and indirect effect of the former accounted for 20.12%of the total effect,while the latter 24.21%;?Individuals'helping time to the third person(M=3.698)under the condition of empathy for positive emotion is significantly higher than that of the objective attitude condition(M=2.712);?The helping behavior to the target of empathy plays a total mediator role in the relationship between empathy for positive emotion and helping behavior to the third person,and its indirect effect accounted for 46.85%of the total effect.The main conclusions of this study are as follows:?Empathy for positive emotion has a significant impact on helping behavior to the targer of empathy with helping time as an indicator;positive emotion change and liking both play a mediator role in the positive relationship between empathy for positive emotion and helping behavior to the target of empathy.?Empathy for positive emotion can not only promote helping behavior to the target of empathy,but also promote helping behavior to the third person;and the helping behavior to the target of empathy plays a total mediator role in the relationship between empathy for positive emotion and helping behavior to the third person.That is to say,the influence of empathy for positive emotion on helping behavior to the third person is entirely through the helping behavior to the target of empathy indirectly.? Empathy for positive emotion has a helping effect,and its helping effect is diffuse and transitive.