2015 年 1 巻 1 号 p. 42-49
Empathy is a source of altruistic behavior by offering kind help for people in distress, and so regarded as a good thing, sometimes a precondition of morality. Empathetic friends and family doubtlessly make us feel warm. It does not follow, however, that empathy is prosocial. Society where we are living now is globalized one big society with a goal of living all together in harmony, including not only people in intimate sphere but dissimilar others from different groups. We would ask how empathy works and what effects of it are in this modern social context. It is discussed that intergroup empathy bias may enlarge conflicts between groups and empathy directed toward in-group victims potentially changes into angry and violence against enemy, even into the vicious cycle of violence.
