Abstract
Abstract Kyle Smith, Jack Keating, and Ezra Stotland proposed the empathic–joy hypothesis, which claims that people feeling empathic concern help to get the pleasure of sharing vicariously in the joy that the target of empathy feels when his or her need is removed. They predicted that if those feeling high empathy for a person in need don’t anticipate feeling empathic joy, they will help no more than those feeling low empathy. Smith and colleagues conducted an experiment to test this prediction and claimed support. However, this claim relied on turning away from their experimental manipulation of empathy to a (probably inappropriate) assessment of self-reported empathic concern minus distress. Three additional experiments conducted to test the empathic–joy hypothesis found no support. Results instead consistently patterned as predicted by the empathy–altruism hypothesis. Again, it seemed time to accept the altruism hypothesis, but again acceptance was premature. Others researchers suggested three new possibilities.
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