When Compassion Leads to Paternalism: How Empathy Can Create Perceptions of Incompetence
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When Compassion Leads to Paternalism: How Empathy Can Create Perceptions of Incompetence THESIS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Stephanie Lauren Reeves Graduate Program in Psychology The Ohio State University 2017 Master's Examination Committee: Dr. Steven Spencer, Advisor Dr. Jennifer Crocker Dr. Kentaro Fujita Copyrighted by Stephanie Lauren Reeves 2017 Abstract Conventional wisdom and psychological research suggest that empathy is one of the most effective ways to promote intergroup relations. We suggest, however, that certain types of empathy may in fact backfire and undermine intergroup relations. Specifically, in the present research we examined whether empathy focused only on a racial minority group target’s disadvantages and struggles – what we refer to as paternalistic empathy – would lead majority group members to form more negative impressions of the target. In addition, we examined whether respectful empathy, or empathy that focuses on the target’s strengths in addition to their disadvantages, would lead to more positive impressions of the target. In Study 1, White participants who engaged in paternalistic empathy for a Black target showed more pity for the target and perceived him as less competent (vs. a respectful empathy condition and a control condition). Participants who engaged in respectful empathy for the target perceived him as more competent (vs. the control condition). Study 2 addresses alternative explanations associated with the results of Study 1. Lastly, Study 3 was a two-part study that examined the effects of paternalistic empathy on White’s behaviors toward a Black job candidate in an interview task, and how White’s behaviors might in turn affect a job candidate’s interview performance. In Study 3a we found that participants who engaged in paternalistic empathy asked the Black job candidate more non-diagnostic and fewer competence-eliciting interview ii questions. In Study 3b, we found a trend such that the interview questions asked by participants in the paternalistic empathy condition in Study 3a tended to elicit worse interview answers from a new sample of undergraduate students. The discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for strategies to reduce prejudice and improve intergroup relations. iii Acknowledgments First and foremost, I thank my advisor Steve Spencer for his amazing mentorship and guidance. I can’t imagine a more dedicated and selfless mentor, and I have grown immensely as a researcher under his guidance. I also thank my committee members, Ken Fujita and Jenny Crocker. Thank you also to my collaborators on this research, Crystal Tse and Christine Logel: this research would not be possible without you. I would also like to acknowledge all of students and faculty in the Social Psychology Areas at Waterloo and Ohio State for their feedback on this research. Finally, I would like to thank my family for the unwavering support and encouragement they have given to me throughout graduate school and in general. iv Vita 2010................................................................B.A. Psychology, University of Colorado 2015................................................................M.A. Psychology, University of Texas Publications Brady, S. T., Reeves, S. L., Garcia, J., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Cook, J. E., Taborsky-Barba, S., ... & Cohen, G. L. (2016). The psychology of the affirmed learner: Spontaneous self-affirmation in the face of stress. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108(3), 353. Lamer, S, Reeves, S.L., & Weisbuch, M. (2015). The nonverbal environment of self- esteem: Interactive effects of facial-expression and eye-gaze on perceivers' self- evaluations. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 56, 130-138. Fields of Study Major Field: Psychology v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iv Vita ...................................................................................................................................... v Chapter 1: Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Study 1 .............................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 3: Study 2 ............................................................................................................ 15 Chapter 4: Study 3 ............................................................................................................ 19 Chapter 5: General Discussion.......................................................................................... 32 References ......................................................................................................................... 38 Appendix A: Empathy Manipulation Writing Prompts (Studies 1-3) .............................. 42 Appendix B: Article Task (Study 3) ................................................................................. 46 Appendix C: Impression Formation Task (Studies 1-3) ................................................... 49 Appendix D: Interview Task Materials (Study 3)............................................................. 50 vi Chapter 1: Introduction “‘First of all,’ he said, ‘if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.’” ― Atticus Finch (in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960) As illustrated in this piece of advice from Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, empathy is widely regarded as a virtue and as perhaps one of the most effective means though which we can come to understand people who are different from us. Conventional wisdom and psychological research alike suggest that empathy can lead to positive outcomes in a wide variety of domains, perhaps most prominent of which is intergroup relations (For a review, see Batson & Ahmad, 2009). But is empathy a source of unmitigated virtue in intergroup contexts? Without denying the value of empathy in many instances, we suggest that under certain circumstances empathy may in fact backfire and ultimately hinder rather than help efforts to achieve intergroup harmony. At first glance, it may be hard to imagine how attempting to empathize with someone – that is, to understand and share that person’s emotions – could be harmful. But consider as an example a schoolteacher who is attempting to empathize with a struggling student; the student’s grades are lower than she would like, but she also knows that this student comes from a low-income family and that he has a stressful home life. 1 One way that this teacher could empathize with the student would be to think about how difficult the student’s plight must be – about how she might feel if she were faced with such hardship. Feeling sorry for the student, the teacher might ease up her standards for him, assigning easier problem sets or calling on him fewer times in class. Although this strategy may lead the teacher to feel sympathy for the student, and perhaps even to like the student more, it does not allow the teacher to appreciate his unique strengths. By lowering the teacher’s expectations for the student, this form of empathy could ultimately prevent him from fulfilling his full academic potential. Alternatively, the teacher could empathize with the student by imagining all of the strengths and strategies that he has learned from his experiences of struggle and hardship, and thinking about how she might feel if she were to use these strengths in situations of adversity. With a newfound understanding of the student and his strengths, the teacher may choose to provide support and encouragement that would allow the student to improve without lowering her standards for him. Although the differences between these two examples of empathy may seem subtle, they could lead to very different outcomes for both the teacher and the student. Following from these possibilities, in the present research we suggest that whether empathy is helpful or harmful in intergroup relations will depend on with which aspects of another person’s experiences are empathized. Empathy and Intergroup Relations Colloquially, empathy is defined as the process of understanding and experiencing the emotions of another person. Throughout the research literature empathy 2 has been defined in a number of different ways, but it is generally understood to involve “feeling what another person feels because of something that happens to them” (Wondra & Ellsworth, 2015). Although the term empathy is often used synonymously with the term perspective-taking, the latter is typically thought to be a primarily cognitive process that consists of “seeing the world through another person’s perspective”(Gilin, Maddux, Carpenter, & Galinsky, 2013). Regardless of this distinction, the two constructs are tightly coupled and some research suggests that engaging in one often leads to the other (Batson et al., 1997; See also Vorauer, 2013). Thus, in the present research we define empathy as a broad construct that involves both feeling another’s emotions and seeing the