关键词: 共情反应, 人类-动物共情, 责任归因, 社会支配倾向, 救助意愿

Abstract:

Empathy towards humans and animals varies significantly in societal contexts. While homeless individuals face severe survival challenges and social exclusion, public attitudes towards them are generally more negative compared to stray animals, who often receive greater attention, sympathy, and shelter. This research examines potential differences and mechanisms in empathetic responses towards stray animals and homeless individuals, within the framework of responsibility attribution. We hypothesize that participants are more likely to attribute internal responsibility to homeless people for their misfortunes than to stray animals, leading to lower empathetic responses toward homeless people. Furthermore, we propose that this effect is moderated by social dominance orientation (SDO). Specifically, individuals with high SDO are expected to perceive both targets (i.e., stray animals or homeless individuals) similarly, showing smaller differences in empathy and responsibility attribution toward homeless people and stray animals.
Three experiments were conducted to test the hypotheses. Across all experiments, participants read news articles to manipulate the harsh living conditions or unfortunate events experienced by different empathy targets. Experiment 1 employed a within-subjects design (N = 296), where participants read articles describing the living conditions of stray animals and homeless individuals and subsequently reported their internal responsibility attributions and empathy responses. The results indicated that participants showed lower empathy responses toward homeless individuals compared to stray animals, and this difference was mediated by greater internal attributions of responsibility to homeless individuals. Experiment 2 used a between-subjects design to replicate these findings among members of an animal protection group (N = 208, Experiment 2a) and general population samples (Ns = 217 and 300, Experiments 2b and 2c), demonstrating the robustness of the results. Furthermore, Experiment 2 revealed a moderating role of SDO, showing that individuals with high SDO exhibited smaller differences in internal responsibility attributions and empathy responses between homeless individuals and stray animals. Finally, these empathy differences influenced participants’ donation intentions and behaviors, as they were more likely to donate to stray animals than to homeless individuals.
To examine the causal mediating role of internal responsibility attribution, Experiment 3(Ns = 400 and 300, Experiments 3a and 3b) further manipulated internal responsibility attribution to test its effect on the differences in empathy responses towards homeless individuals and stray animals. The results revealed that participants showed less empathy towards homeless individuals than stray animals under the control condition. However, in a low or high internal responsibility attribution condition, there was no significant difference in empathy responses towards homeless individuals and stray animals. These findings further validate that internal responsibility attribution is the mechanism driving the differences in empathy responses towards homeless individuals and stray animals.
In summary, the findings from the three experiments revealed that individuals attribute more internal responsibility to homeless people than to stray animals, leading to lower empathy responses and a reduced willingness to help the homeless. This effect was moderated by individual differences in SDO. Specifically, individuals with high SDO exhibited smaller differences in empathy responses between homeless individuals and stray animals. These findings provide deeper insights into differential empathy responses towards humans and animals and offer implications for welfare and assistance strategies for vulnerable human populations and animals.

Key words: empathy, human-animal empathy, responsibility attribution, social dominance orientation, willingness to help