The Effect of Empathy in Environmental Moral Reasoning

Abstract

Based on Batson’s Model of Altruism, in the present work it is argued that moral reasoning about the environment (number of moral reasons given for pro-environmental behaviors) can be improved by manipulating the emotion of empathy. It is also argued that the argument of moral reasoning will be different depending on whether the object of empathy is a natural object (vulture) or a human being (young man). The present work reports a study using a factorial design (2x2) with control group on the relationship between empathy level (high or low), empathy object (vulture or young man) and moral reasoning about ecological dilemmas. The reasoning was evaluated using four different ecological moral dilemmas, with responses coded in three categories (anthropocentric, ecocentric and nonvenvironmental). The results of the study indicate that participants who showed a high empathy level provided more arguments of moral reasoning than those in the low empathy group. When the object of empathy was a vulture the number of moral arguments of an ecocentric nature increased; when it was a young man the number of moral arguments of an anthropocentric nature increased.