Reference: Tan, Qianbao; Huang, Yong, Ling, Zi; Zhan, Youlong; & Zhou, Haibo. (2024). Warmer individuals get more help: The influence of stereotypes and empathy on moral decision-making. Social and Personality Psychology, 127(6), 2980- 2998. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941231152386 What factors guide Junior High students' decisions to help others? Research shows that both cognitive and emotional systems influence moral decision-making. People decide to act based on their values plus feelings about the situation. China researchers investigated how empathy traits and judgements about others affect individual decisions. They divided 160 students, ages 11-16 years, into two groups based on their high or low empathy scores. Students completed moral decision-making scenarios, deciding whether to help others when the others acted competently or not and warm and welcoming or not. Results? Students favored helping others with high warmth over those with high competence. They valued warmth higher, seeing it as more important than competence in their decision to help. High-empathy participants felt this effect less, choosing to help individuals with low warmth more often compared to participants with low empathy. These findings suggest that perceived warmth and competence affect caring behavior, especially in youth with less warmth and/or empathy. Certainly, this world would be better if more youth as well as adults acted empathetically and warm towards all needing help. Let’s try to be kind and helpful to everyone!

Written by Kristin M. Harris, Ph.D.