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Why is lower social class often associated with greater empathy? We test whether less wealthy people experience more challenges, thereby motivating them to help others as a means of securing future social support, and, in turn, cultivating empathy over recurrent experiences. Study 1 ( N = 513) showed that wealth was negatively correlated with empathy through fewer challenges and less helping. Study 2 ( N = 915) replicated this effect while revealing unexpected curvilinear associations. Among people helping less overall (measured monthly across 1 year), wealth led to lower empathy through fewer challenges and less helping. However, among people helping more overall, more helping led to decreasing empathy. Study 3 ( N = 500) replicated the sequential indirect effect of wealth on empathic concern at low, but not high, helping in a two-wave preregistered study. Results suggest that repeated acts of helping can cultivate empathic concern—but, only for those helping a moderate amount.
Beltran et al. (Sat,) studied this question.