Standing in Others' Shoes: Empathy and Positional Behavior
Studies show that people are concerned with other people's consumption position in a varying degree with respect to the type of goods consumed and individual characteristics. Using both survey experiments and a large survey of subjective well-being (SWB) dataset, this paper aims to investigate...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02226/full |
| _version_ | 1811336142062092288 |
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| author | Alpaslan Akay Alpaslan Akay Alpaslan Akay Gökhan Karabulut Bilge Terzioğlu |
| author_facet | Alpaslan Akay Alpaslan Akay Alpaslan Akay Gökhan Karabulut Bilge Terzioğlu |
| author_sort | Alpaslan Akay |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Studies show that people are concerned with other people's consumption position in a varying degree with respect to the type of goods consumed and individual characteristics. Using both survey experiments and a large survey of subjective well-being (SWB) dataset, this paper aims to investigate the association between the degree of empathic capacity and positional concerns for consumption items involving pleasure and pain. The paper exploits both empathy quotient (EQ) and interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) measures of empathic capacity, i.e., dispositional empathy, which are sufficient measures capturing affective and cognitive aspects of empathy. Positional concerns are identified directly using a series of stated choice experiments and indirectly using the SWB approach. The main result of the paper is that positional concerns vary substantially with the levels of empathic capacity. Both EQ and IRI are found to be positively associated with positional concerns for “goods” (e.g., after-tax income, market value of a luxury car), reflecting a degree of self-regarded feelings and behavior to reduce personal distress, and negatively associated with positional concerns for “bads” (e.g., working hours and poverty rates), reflecting a degree of other-regarding feelings and behavior. The results are robust with respect to various checks including statistical specifications, reference groups, and omitted variables (e.g., prosocial behavior and competitivity) that could bias the results. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T17:35:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-63636ab434384f45b7b42981d7fc59e6 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T17:35:01Z |
| publishDate | 2019-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-63636ab434384f45b7b42981d7fc59e62022-12-22T02:37:24ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782019-10-011010.3389/fpsyg.2019.02226465221Standing in Others' Shoes: Empathy and Positional BehaviorAlpaslan Akay0Alpaslan Akay1Alpaslan Akay2Gökhan Karabulut3Bilge Terzioğlu4Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, SwedenInstitute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn, GermanyDepartment of Economics, Universidad Antonio de Nebrija, Madrid, SpainDepartment of Economics, Istanbul University, Istanbul, TurkeyDepartment of Economics, Istanbul University, Istanbul, TurkeyStudies show that people are concerned with other people's consumption position in a varying degree with respect to the type of goods consumed and individual characteristics. Using both survey experiments and a large survey of subjective well-being (SWB) dataset, this paper aims to investigate the association between the degree of empathic capacity and positional concerns for consumption items involving pleasure and pain. The paper exploits both empathy quotient (EQ) and interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) measures of empathic capacity, i.e., dispositional empathy, which are sufficient measures capturing affective and cognitive aspects of empathy. Positional concerns are identified directly using a series of stated choice experiments and indirectly using the SWB approach. The main result of the paper is that positional concerns vary substantially with the levels of empathic capacity. Both EQ and IRI are found to be positively associated with positional concerns for “goods” (e.g., after-tax income, market value of a luxury car), reflecting a degree of self-regarded feelings and behavior to reduce personal distress, and negatively associated with positional concerns for “bads” (e.g., working hours and poverty rates), reflecting a degree of other-regarding feelings and behavior. The results are robust with respect to various checks including statistical specifications, reference groups, and omitted variables (e.g., prosocial behavior and competitivity) that could bias the results.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02226/fulldispositional empathysurvey experimentspositional concernsutilitysubjective well-being |
| spellingShingle | Alpaslan Akay Alpaslan Akay Alpaslan Akay Gökhan Karabulut Bilge Terzioğlu Standing in Others' Shoes: Empathy and Positional Behavior Frontiers in Psychology dispositional empathy survey experiments positional concerns utility subjective well-being |
| title | Standing in Others' Shoes: Empathy and Positional Behavior |
| title_full | Standing in Others' Shoes: Empathy and Positional Behavior |
| title_fullStr | Standing in Others' Shoes: Empathy and Positional Behavior |
| title_full_unstemmed | Standing in Others' Shoes: Empathy and Positional Behavior |
| title_short | Standing in Others' Shoes: Empathy and Positional Behavior |
| title_sort | standing in others shoes empathy and positional behavior |
| topic | dispositional empathy survey experiments positional concerns utility subjective well-being |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02226/full |
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