Group Empathy in Response to Nonverbal Racial/Ethnic Cues

In this study, we argue that nonverbal racial/ethnic cues can activate one’s empathy toward disadvantaged out-groups, particularly when such cues resonate with one’s own in-group cultural experiences with discrimination. To explain this phenomenon, we propose Group Empathy Theory and test our expectations via a national survey experiment on undocumented immigration. We find trait-level group empathy is strongly linked with empathic reactions to vignettes depicting immigrant detainees in distress, which in turn affect immigration policy attitudes. We also find African Americans and Latinos are considerably more likely than Anglos to exhibit empathy for disadvantaged groups other than their own and oppose deportation policies aimed at undocumented immigrants.