Empathy is important for resolving intergroup conflicts. However, people tend to feel less empathy toward people who do not belong to our social group outgroup members). To overcome this tendency, Dr Yossi Hasson, Prof. Maya Tamir, Prof. Eran Halperin and others developed a new intervention synthesizing psychology and art to increase the belief that empathy is unlimited.
Across various intergroup contexts (including different ethnic, national, religious, and political groups) results show that the more people believe empathy is limited, the less outgroup empathy they experience. Moreover, leading people to believe that empathy is unlimited increased outgroup empathy, led to greater support for prosocial actions, and encouraged more empathic behaviors toward outgroup members in face-to-face intergroup interactions!
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