Increased Empathy is Linked to “Liberal” Moral Values--Study

Most people would like to change something about their personality, no matter how small. This could be being too reactive or less tolerant, or being too critical and judgmental of others.

Usually, these changes affect relationships with others, but it can also affect which moral values you consider the most important.

That’s the conclusion of a research study by Ivar R. Hannikainen and colleagues published in the Journal of Research in Personality. They found concluded that growth in one area—empathy--was associated with a shift in moral foundations to a more “liberal” style of morality.

The study with 414 participants answering weekly “waves” of questions. First, they filled in measures exploring two facets of empathy: empathic concern and perspective-taking which reflects someone’s reaction to suffering (e.g. “I often have tender feelings for people less fortunate than me”), while perspective-taking looks at their tendency to take other points of view (e.g. “I try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective”).

Participants in the study also filled in a questionnaire which focused on five “moral foundations”, or fairly broad moral values which people may prioritise in different ways. These moral values consisted of care, fairness, loyalty to one’s ingroup, respect for authority, and observance of “purity” (for example, restraining sexual impulses).

Both of these sets of questions were repeated throughout fifteen weeks of the study. During the first set of questions only, participants were also asked about their desire to change empathic concern and perspective-taking — “I want to have tender feelings towards people less fortunate than me”, for example. Along with the responses, demographic data of the participants, including political orientation, was also measured.

The researchers found that moral foundations were linked to political orientation: liberals were more concerned with the values of fairness and care than conservatives, who identified more closely with statements related to purity, authority and loyalty.

The researchers wanted to know if there was an empathy change between the sets of questions. The results suggested that people can increase their levels of both empathic concern and perspective-taking: participants who had more of a desire to grow in both areas indeed saw increasing scores over the fifteen weeks. These goals also had an impact on moral foundations: those who expressed a desire to become more empathic also increased in their link to liberalism (fairness and care) and decreased on those areas related to conservatism (purity, authority and loyalty). 

Although the increase in empathy was associated with a more “liberal” pattern of moral values, it’s unclear whether people’s political views actually changed (indeed, conservatives would likely argue that fairness and care are not purely liberal qualities).

Co-author William Chopik argues that it may be to do with opening yourself up to other arguments. “Being a better perspective-taker exposes you to all sorts of new ideas, so it makes sense that it would change someone,” he said. “When you become more empathic, it opens up a lot of doors to change humans in other ways, including how they think about morality and ideology – which may or may not have been intended.”