Article

Law and Literature: Theory and Evidence on Empathy and Guile

Daniel L. Chen

Résumé

Legal theorists have suggested that literature stimulates empathy and affects moral judgment and decision-making. I present a model to formalize the potential effects of empathy on third parties. Empathy is modeled as having two components–sympathy (the decision-maker’s reference point about what the third party deserves) and emotional theory of mind (anticipating the emotions of another in reaction to certain actions). I study the causal effect with a data entry experiment. Workers enter text whose content is randomized to relate to empathy, guile, or a control. Workers then take the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) and participate in a simple economic game. On average, workers exposed to empathy become less deceptive towards third parties. The result is stronger when workers are nearly indifferent. These results are robust to a variety of controls and model specifications.

Mots-clés

Normative Commitments; Other-Regarding Preferences; Empathy; Deception; Guile;

Codes JEL

  • D03: Behavioral Microeconomics • Underlying Principles
  • D64: Altruism • Philanthropy
  • K00: General

Remplace

Daniel L. Chen, « Does Empathy Beget Guile? Experimental Evidence », IAST working paper, n° 16-42, juillet 2016.

Publié dans

Review of Law and Economics, vol. 15, n° 1, mars 2019