1Cademy - Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

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Basic Motives Underlying Prosocial Behavior: Theories

Concept

Empathy-Altruism Hypothesis

Batson (1991) proposed that when we feel empathy for others, we will try to help out of purely altruistic reasons.

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Updated 2026-07-03

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New York University

References

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Social psychology

Psychology

Social Science

Empirical Science

Science

OpenStax Psychology (2nd ed.) Textbook

OpenStax

Psychology @ OpenStax

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Learn After

A student observes a classmate, who they don't know well, become visibly upset after receiving a poor grade on a presentation. According to the empathy-altruism hypothesis, which of the following reasons for offering comfort would be the best example of the mechanism it describes?

Learn After

A student observes a classmate, who they don't know well, become visibly upset after receiving a poor grade on a presentation. According to the empathy-altruism hypothesis, which of the following reasons for offering comfort would be the best example of the mechanism it describes?

Related