When Empathy and Negative Group Stereotypes Collide: The Case of Immigration

• In Event: Experiments in Empathy

Abstract

Empathy is a basic human ability and a possible foundation of support for immigration. Drawing on data from two studies, we examine the role of empathy in amplifying support or opposition to immigration based on someone holding a negative stereotype of members of the immigrant group. The first study involves a national online survey in which we examine the power of empathy to shape support for—or opposition to—acceptance of child refugees from Central America among those who hold negative and positive stereotypes of Latinos. In a second online survey experiment, respondents are assigned to read about a white or black immigrant and indicate their support for the immigrant as a function of their empathic ability and negative racial attitudes. In both studies, empathic ability is measured with Baron-Cohen and colleagues’ (2001) “Reading the Mind in the Eyes” task. The key hypotheses concern enhanced support for an immigrant among those high in empathic ability who also hold positive stereotypes of the immigrant group; in contrast, we predict enhanced opposition to the immigrant among those high in empathic ability who hold negative stereotypes. In line with our past research (Feldman et al 2020), we find in the first study that empathy enhances support for child refugees among those who hold positive Latino stereotypes, but backfires to increase opposition among those who hold negative stereotypes.  We replicate these findings in the second study focused on a black or white immigrant. In the second study, we also assess the causal role of empathy regulation as the explanation for why empathy backfires in the context of a disliked immigrant. Respondents in that study are given an opportunity to further empathize with the immigrant after expressing their support for his case.

Authors

• Leonie Huddy, SUNY, Stony Brook

• Stanley Feldman, Stony Brook University

• Romeo Gray