Failing Motivated Empathy Interventions

People often feel less empathy towards outgroup compared to ingroup targets. Overcoming this intergroup empathy bias is important for fostering positive intergroup relations. In four pre-registered and high-powered studies (n = 3782) we attempted to replicate and generalize motivated empathy interventions that previously have made people more empathetic and prosocial towards outgroup targets. Using self-reported empathy measures and factual monetary donations we examined the effects of several brief interventions. The interventions targeted avoidance motivations based on beliefs about the un/limited nature of empathy or approach motivations based on beliefs about empathy’s malleability or normatively desirability. Across studies we tested the interventions in several in- and intergroup contexts, using both novel and preexisting stimuli. In general, interventions failed to increase empathy or prosocial donations. Instead, inducing beliefs about the limited nature of empathy reduced participants’ empathy. Motivating people to withhold empathy may be easier than motivating them to increase it.