ArticleEmotion (Washington, D.C.)2012
Greater emotional empathy and prosocial behavior in late life.
Article in Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 82 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
82 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 288 citations in OpenAlex.
- Training emotional competencies at the workplace: a systematic review and metaanalysis.BMC psychology · 2024Pooled it
- Are Older Adults More Prosocial Than Younger Adults? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.The Gerontologist · 2024Pooled it
- Outcomes of Randomized Clinical Trials of Interventions to Enhance Social, Emotional, and Spiritual Components of Wisdom: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.JAMA psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Empathy Impairment in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Conditions From a Multidimensional Perspective: A Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2019Pooled it
- Intranasal oxytocin modulates the salience network in aging.NeuroImage · 2022Trial
- Null results of oxytocin and vasopressin administration across a range of social cognitive and behavioral paradigms: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2019Trial
- Vasopressin, but not oxytocin, increases empathic concern among individuals who received higher levels of paternal warmth: A randomized controlled trial.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2015Trial
- Psychometric Validation of an Arabic-Language Version of the Pictorial Empathy Test (PET) and the Single-Item Trait Empathy Scale (SITES) in a Tunisian Young Adult Sample.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2026Article
- Age moderates the association between helping and meaning in daily life.Emotion (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- How Conscientiousness Influences Prosocial Behavior Among Adolescents: The Role of Empathy and Social Support.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Seeing and deciding to help: neural and attentional mechanisms of prosociality in younger and older adults.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026Article
- Age differences in neural discriminability of rumination and worry.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Motivations, willingness, and gains: a qualitative study of experiences of helping behaviors among community-dwelling older adults in China using self-construal theory.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Cultural differences in self-reported empathy in Indonesia.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Psychometric Properties of the Arabic Version of the Pictorial Empathy Test for Assessing Affective Empathic Reactions in Patients with Schizophrenia.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Empathy and mental health distress in informal caregivers of dementia and stroke patients: a cross-sectional study.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Empathy is associated with older adults' social behaviors and verbal emotional expressions throughout the day.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Moderating role of age in the relationship between ingroup range and intention to help during the COVID-19 pandemic.PloS one · 2025Article
- Neural empathy mechanisms are shared for physical and social pain, and increase from adolescence to older adulthood.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2024Article
- Evolving Altruistic Attitudes towards Vaccination Post COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparative Analysis across Age Groups.Vaccines · 2024Article
22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Emotional empathy and prosocial behavior were assessed in older, middle-aged, and young adults. Participants watched two films depicting individuals in need, one uplifting and the other distressing. Physiological responses were monitored during the films, and participants rated their levels of emotional empathy following each film. As a measure of prosocial behavior, participants were given an additional payment they could contribute to charities supporting the individuals in the films. Age-related linear increases were found for both emotional empathy (self-reported empathic concern and cardiac and electrodermal responding) and prosocial behavior (size of contribution) across both films and in self-reported personal distress to the distressing film. Empathic concern and cardiac reactivity to both films, along with personal distress to the distressing film only, were associated with greater prosocial behavior. Empathic concern partially mediated the age-related differences in prosocial behavior. Results are discussed in terms of our understanding both of adult development and of the nature of these vital aspects of human emotion.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.