Valsedelns Empatiska Påverkan - En experimentell enkätstudie om selektiv empati i politiska in- och utgrupper

Sammanfattning: This study sought to answer whether people have a higher tendency to feel empathy towards people who are part of their own political ingroup, rather than those who are in the outgroup, meaning, if empathy is selective in relation to political in- and outgroups. Empathy is defined here as (1) cognitive empathy, (2) affective empathy, and (3) empathic concern. The sample consisted of people who sympathize with a major left wing political party (Swedish Social Democratic Party) (n=71) and people who sympathize with a major right wing party (Moderate Party) (n=58) as well as a control group (n=59) consisting of participants without a significant affiliation to either Party. The average age among all of the participants were 30.1 years old and the range was 18-77. The study used a survey experimental method, where the participants were presented with a debate article discussing a politician who is a victim of an unwarranted media frenzy and respond to empathy related questions. The article randomly assigned the individual membership of either the Social Democratic or the Moderate party, but was otherwise identical. Findings revealed a significant difference in empathy depending on whether the person to whom empathy is eventually directed towards belongs to the participants’ political ingroup or outgroup. In this study, these findings are mainly attributed to social identity theory, which states that people have a so-called ‘ingroup bias’ - a favoring of people belonging to their own ingroup.