Reinterpreting the empathy–altruism relationship: When one into one equals oneness.

TLDR

Important features of the self‑concept can be located outside the individual and within close others. The authors reinterpret data that previously supported the empathy‑altruism model, arguing that empathic concern leads to greater self‑other overlap and thus to self‑directed helping rather than pure altruism. They reanalyzed prior empathy‑altruism studies by incorporating a measure of perceived self‑other overlap (oneness) to assess its mediating role. Across three studies, empathic concern predicted helping only through perceived oneness, and when oneness was accounted for the direct effect of empathic concern vanished, undermining the empathy‑altruism model.

Abstract

Important features of the self-concept can be located outside of the individual and inside close or related others. The authors use this insight to reinterpret data previously said to support the empathy-altruism model of helping, which asserts that empathic concern for another results in selflessness and true altruism. That is, they argue that the conditions that lead to empathic concern also lead to a greater sense of self-other overlap, raising the possibility that helping under these conditions is not selfless but is also directed toward the self. In 3 studies, the impact of empathic concern on willingness to help was eliminated when oneness--a measure of perceived self-other overlap--was considered. Path analyses revealed further that empathic concern increased helping only through its relation to perceived oneness, thereby throwing the empathy-altruism model into question. The authors suggest that empathic concern affects helping primarily as an emotional signal of oneness.