The effects of empathy and presence of another person on prosocial behavior in preschool children

• Published in: Shinrigaku kenkyū Vol. 56; no. 2; pp. 103 - 106
• Main Author: Hamazaki, Takashi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japanese Psychological Association 1985
• Subjects: empathy; empathy test; presence of another person; prosocial behavior; sharing behavior
• ISSN: 0021-5236; 1884-1082
• DOI: 10.4992/jjpsy.56.103

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of empathy on sharing behavior under the presence or absence of another person (experimenter). Eighty-eight six-year-old children were divided into High Empathic Group (H) and Low Empathic Group (L) by their empathy test scores. The number of shared chips out of nine rewarded chips was used as the measure of prosocial behavior. Group H donated significantly more chips to poor children than Group L. In Group L the subjects under the presence condition donated significantly more chips than those under the absence condition, but in Group H no significant difference was found between these conditions. These findings suggest that preschool children's prosocial behavior is motivated by both empathy and presence of another person.