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In‐group bias in children's intention to help can be overpowered by inducing empathy
Author(s) -
Sierksma Jellie,
Thijs Jochem,
Verkuyten Maykel
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/bjdp.12065
Subject(s) - empathy , psychology , vignette , perspective (graphical) , perspective taking , intervention (counseling) , developmental psychology , theory of mind , peer group , social psychology , empathic concern , social cognition , cognition , psychiatry , artificial intelligence , computer science
An experimental vignette study was conducted among children (8–13 years) to examine whether inducing empathic understanding is an effective intervention to overpower peer group boundaries in children's helping. Children were induced or not induced to empathize with the recipient of help, who was or was not part of their (imagined) group of friends. Results showed that children intended to help in‐group peers more compared to outgroup peers when empathic understanding was not induced. However, when empathy was induced, they intended to help friends and non‐friends equally. Inducing empathic understanding was effective independent of the recipient's level of need, and children's advanced social perspective‐taking ability. Encouraging children to imagine how a recipient of help feels might thus be a useful strategy to prevent peer group‐based biases in children's helping behaviour.