Empathy Mind-Set Moderates the Association Between Low Empathy and Social Aggression

Abstract

Empathy plays an important role in creating and maintaining adaptive interpersonal relationships. Accordingly, existing studies often report a negative correlation between empathy and interpersonal aggression. However, findings are sometimes inconsistent, and concerns have been raised about the size of the overall effect. Here, we examined the potential moderating role of empathy mind-sets—beliefs about the malleability of empathy. We hypothesized that the association between low empathy and aggression would be especially strong if individuals also believed that their levels of empathy were unchangeable (i.e., they endorsed a fixed mind-set about empathy); in contrast, a belief that empathy was malleable may weaken the association. Results supported this hypothesis, such that individuals with low levels of empathy were less likely to report aggression—social aggression in particular—if they also believed that empathy was changeable. These results point to a role for beliefs about the malleability of empathy as an important moderator and may point to ways to enhance empathy interventions by targeting mind-sets.