Experimental Analysis of Behavior Commons^™

A Social Identity Threat To Merit: The Effects Of Similar Experience On Empathic Concern, Asia Mccleary-Gaddy

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Past research indicates that having a similar life experience as another person leads to greater empathic concern towards that person. Two studies empirically investigated if similar experiences of race-based social identity threat can increase the empathic concern of White Americans toward African Americans. Study 1 revealed that White Americans randomly assigned to think about White privilege and then randomly assigned to read a passage about an African American whose accomplishments are attributed to Affirmative Action policies (versus an African American whose accomplishments are attributed to his hard work and merit) felt greater empathic concern toward the African American described in …