The Relationship Between Empathy and Moral Judgement in Typical and Clinical Populations

Abstract

As a critical role in moral psychology, empathy and moral judgment have been studied by many psychologists and have promoted people's cognition and understanding of morality. Although there have been a lot of experiments that explored empathy and moral judgment separately, the relationship between the two has been neglected. It is not known how empathy and moral judgment interact. This review explored moral judgment and empathy’s relationship in typical and clinical populations. This review can provide an in-depth exploration of the study of existing experimental results and research, and an analysis of the relationship between the two. The study of the relationship between empathy and moral judgment can deepen the field of psychological understanding of the process of making moral judgments. According to the review of existing studies, it was found that empathy can affect people's moral judgment in both typical and clinical populations along with age, sex, and different scenarios.