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Four self-contained experimental conditions (N = 496) examined the relations between perceived controllability, emotional reactions of anger and sympathy, and judgments of helping behavior. In accordance with prior findings, it was confirmed that an attribution-affect-action path captures the motivational process in this domain. Controllable causes of a need state give rise to anger, which, in turn, evokes neglect, whereas uncontrollable causes of a need state elicit pity, which, in turn, generates judgments of help-giving. These paths were not altered by self-focus and other-focus (empathy) instructions or by instructions to ignore feelings and concentrate on the objective situation. General issues pertaining to helping and affect were examined.
Schmidt et al. (Thu,) studied this question.