Rhetoric of Truthfulness in the Battle Between Social Attributions and Empathic Emotions - Conflict and Multimodal Communication: Social Research and Machine Intelligence - page 290

15.3 Empathy and Conflict Management

Although opinions are still diverse about the nature of empathy, a substantial body of
research has been generated in recent decades on how empathy relates to things such
as altruistic motivation, moral development, similarity (Batson et al. 1996 ; Hoffman
2000 ; Houston 1990 ;Hume 1957 ; Kohut 1984 ; Krebs 1975 ; Kubo and Muto 1984 ),
and interpersonal relationships, and during the same period, empathic emotions
have also been considered an essential component of motivation for engaging in
prosocial behaviors (Einlof 2008; Stephan and Finlay 1999 ) and have also received
much theoretical and empirical attention because of their contributions to reducing
social aggression, together with their ability to promote conflict resolution, social
inclusion, and solidarity (Genç and Kalafat 2008). Moreover, some researchers have
recently found that empathy is also significantly related to conflict management
(LeBlanc et al. 2012; Wied et al. 2007; Halpern and Weinstein 2004). This trend is
related to the necessity of connecting empathy to political theory and international
relations, including deliberative democracy and communicative action (Crawford
2010; Dews 1992; Morrell 2010), psychological approaches to foreign policy
analysis (Jervis 1970, 1976; Jervis et al. 1985; White 1991), and political judgment
(Solomon 1988; Arendt 1965, 2006).

15.3.1 Study: Focusing on Social Attributions and Empathic

Emotions

Although the literature contains important contributions to our understanding of the
relationship between empathy and social relations, and researchers have no doubts
that the feeling of empathic emotions for another person may compel people to work
toward resolving conflicts or enhancing better intergroup relations (Batson et al.
1997b ; Davis et al. 1996 ; Head 2012 ), what remains a matter of some controversy,
however, is the reason why such relations exist.
By definition, such a process as empathizing requires that “inferences” and
“attributions” be activated in different forms, in relation to the other 's condition, to
his/her mood in a certain situation, and so forth (Bem 1972; Deschamps 1977 , 1982 ;
Hewstone 1989 ; Jones and Davis 1965 ). Weiner, for example, showed that people's
affective responses to a suffering person are shaped by the attributions they make
regarding the cause of that suffering. In this connection, research on attribution and
empathy suggests that it is easier to feel empathy for someone who is not responsible
for his or her own condition, someone who is a totally innocent victim (Weiner
1980 , 1995 ). In the same vein, according to Ryan ( 1976 ), the perception of victim's
responsibility is also an important component of the stereotype of most stigmatized
groups. By emphasizing victims' responsibility, a detached, depersonalized, and
negative representation of them can be more easily justified. Batson, instead, shows