Objective: in the present thesis, I utilized an online survey to measure the role of Chinese cultural beliefs and other morality measures (empathic concern, perspective taking, moral identity) on the emotional experiences of empathy. Method: 74 European American identified participants (53 women, 18 males, 1 gender non-binary, 1 self-describe as 'no gender, assigned female at birth and female presenting') completed an online survey via Qualtrics. The survey consisted of measures of Chinese cultural beliefs of empathy, empathic concern and perspective taking in dispositional empathy, moral identity, and emotional responses to three social exclusion scenarios with different targets of empathy (an individual, a group and another species). Results: Empathic concern positively predicted feelings of empathy in the scenario where the target of social exclusion was a group (i.e., the group scenario). No other morality measure predicted empathy in any scenario. Endorsement of the Chinese cultural beliefs of empathy positively predicted anger in the group scenario, and negatively predicted indifference in the other species scenario. Conclusion: Results suggest that Chinese cultural beliefs and Confucian concepts, on empathy or other virtues, are relevant among European American young adults. This implies the value of Confucianism and Chinese cultural beliefs as an intellectual resource for psychological research in Chinese or non-Chinese cultural groups. Future research on empathy and/or morality should take account of non-Western cultural beliefs and study them in more depth.
"},{"label":"Degree","value":["Bachelor of Arts with Departmental Honors"]},{"label":"Author-supplied Keywords","value":["Empathy","Confucianism","Moral identity"]},{"label":"Administrative Note","value":"Drupal Node ID: 24129