Cross-sectional study demonstrates that empathy buffers the negative impact of prejudice on multicultural behavioural intentions in college students, highlighting the value of empathy interventions.
This study explores the relationships of belief in a just world (BJW) and prejudice on multicultural behavioural intentions (MBI) among South Korean college students, with a focus on the moderated mediating role of empathy. A sample of 298 college students from South Korea participated in this study. The findings revealed that BJW had a significant direct association on MBI and an indirect association mediated by prejudice. Empathy was found to moderate the relationship between prejudice and MBI, indicating that higher empathy levels weakened the negative association of prejudice on MBI. Additionally, the moderated mediation analysis showed that the indirect association of BJW on MBI through prejudice varied depending on the level of empathy. We present implications for research, education and training, professional practice, and suggestions for future research in an international context, such as developing empathy-enhancement programmes for university counselling services to support multicultural student engagement.
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Choi et al. (2026) studied this question.
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