中国科学院心理健康重点实验室知识库

The purpose of this research was to explore how moral belief of life, at a trait and state level, triggers more altruistic empathy towards others in risk, thereby enhancing greater prosocial behavior, especially in emergencies. Three hundred and twenty-eight undergraduates were asked to complete moral belief of life scale, Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Prosocial Tendencies Measure and Social Desirability Scale. We first found empathy, rather than personal distress, mediated the effect of moral belief of life disposition on prosocial behavior (Study 1). Then, sixty undergraduates were recruited to voluntarily participate the follow-up experiment, moral belief of life elicited by narrative recalling increased empathy toward victims in life emergencies, rather than personal distress, and thus enhanced emergency helping. Moreover, the mediation mechanism of empathy was not moderated by victim attributions (Study 2). These findings verify the self-transcendent attribute of moral belief of life and shed light on how moral belief of life influences emergency helping. Practically, they provide a new perspective for emergency interventions, it is necessary to popularize life morality education to promote moral belief of life and carry out empathy intervention among individuals with weak moral belief of life.