The effect of negative impressions on helping behaviour of highly empathetic people

Previous research has shown that high-empathy individuals usually help more than low-empathy individuals, but it is unclear whether or not a highly empathetic person’s helping behaviour is influenced by a negative impression. The effect of a negative impression on the helping behaviour of highly empathetic people is analyzed. Participants completed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) to identify their empathy level. High (20) and low (20) empathy university students watched a video of a confederate acting to give either a positive or negative impression, after which participants were given an opportunity to help the person in the video. There was no difference between the helping behaviour of high-empathy people and low-empathy people. While these results are inconsistent with previous research, further investigation should be done using participants who are naturally high and low in empathy to help assess factors influencing helping behaviours.