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Review
. 2022 Dec 5;4(2):413-428.
doi: 10.1007/s42761-022-00165-y. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Do Bad People Deserve Empathy? Selective Empathy Based on Targets' Moral Characteristics

Yiyi Wang  1 , Paul L Harris  2 , Meng Pei  1 , Yanjie Su  1
Affiliations
Review

Do Bad People Deserve Empathy? Selective Empathy Based on Targets' Moral Characteristics

Yiyi Wang et al. Affect Sci. .

Abstract

The relation between empathy and morality is a widely discussed topic. However, previous discussions mainly focused on whether and how empathy influences moral cognition and moral behaviors, with limited attention to the reverse influence of morality on empathy. This review summarized how morality influences empathy by drawing together a number of hitherto scattered studies illustrating the influence of targets' moral characteristics on empathy. To explain why empathy is morally selective, we discuss its ultimate cause, to increase survival rates, and five proximate causes based on similarity, affective bonds, the appraisal of deservingness, dehumanization, and potential group membership. To explain how empathy becomes morally selective, we consider three different pathways (automatic, regulative, and mixed) based on previous findings. Finally, we discuss future directions, including the reverse influence of selective empathy on moral cognition, the moral selectivity of positive empathy, and the role of selective empathy in selective helping and third-party punishment.

Keywords: Empathy; Justice; Morality; Selective prosociality.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of InterestThe authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The relation between selective empathy and moral evaluation
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