Partisan Motivated Empathy and Policy Attitudes

Abstract

A voluminous literature examines whether empathy—the capacity to share other people’s perspectives and feelings—mitigates prejudice and improves intergroup relations. We know less about the impact of empathy for policy preferences. We theorize that the effects of empathy on policy attitudes are, at times, contingent on partisanship. Social identity dynamics and partisan motivations shape the target of a person’s empathy and their beliefs about a policy’s effects. We argue that, rather than bringing people together, high levels of empathy can accentuate partisan divisions in policy opinions. We test our theoretical argument using two surveys implemented in the United States. We find that partisanship often moderates the effects of dispositional empathy such that the most empathetic partisans are more polarized in their policy views. Importantly, there are predictable differences across issues. A perspective-taking experiment fails to heighten empathy or change policy opinions. Our study demonstrates that empathy has a nuanced role in preference formation. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on empathy, policy opinions, and political behavior.