Risposta empatica verso una persona in difficoltà: effetti dell’assunzione di prospettiva e della categoria di appartenenza

Empathy and Membership: Empathy is a multifaceted experience, a cognitive-affective state with a complex structure. Although empathy is usually described as an experience occurring in close relationships, it should be also focused on at a collective level. In this paper, we focus on empathizing in an intergroup context. In our study, respondents were confronted, in “high” vs “low” empathy conditions, with a “victim” belonging either to an ingroup or to an outgroup. Our results point out the multidimensional character of empathy. The effects of perspective taking instructions and of target’s membership on self–reported empathy are discussed.