Abstract
This article examines the role of empathy for outgroup helping, collective action and political activism among youth in Northern Ireland, a setting of protracted conflict. Integrating the Empathy-Attitudes-Action model with the Developmental Peacebuilding Model, a two-wave study was conducted to assess youth’s behavioural intentions and actual behaviours toward refugees. Across two waves (N = 383, 52% male, 48% female; 14-16 years old), empathy at Time 1 predicted more positive attitudes toward ethnic minorities at Time 2, which in turn was positively related to four outcomes aiming to foster prosocial change for refugees: helping behaviour and realistic helping at the interpersonal level, collective action intentions at the structural level, and signing a petition aiming for cultural change. That is, outgroup attitudes mediated the link from empathy to three types of prosocial action toward refugees. The findings suggest that youth not only volunteer to help an individual outgroup member, but also support broader structural and cultural change that will benefit those they may never meet. Implications for recognising and supporting the constructive agency of youth toward disadvantaged groups in conflict settings are discussed.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 37-46 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | International Journal of Intercultural Relations |
Volume | 85 |
Early online date | 15 Sept 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Nov 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the Richard Benjamin Trust and the British Academy (BA)/Leverhulme [ SG 150807 ]. Thank you to Jeffrey Hanna, Alexandra Kenny, Clarissa Courtney, Lauren Brown, Dean O’Driscoll, Marion Schulz, Karolina Urbanska, Lukas Horstmeier, Sofia Chirtoglou and Yangjunru (Cecilia) Li for their support with data collection. Our deep appreciation to the numerous school administrators, teachers, and pupils for participating in this project. Any underlying research materials related to this paper can be accessed by contacting the first author.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
Research Groups and Themes
- SoE Centre for Psychological Approaches for Studying Education
Keywords
- Adolescents
- prosocial
- intergroup helping
- refugees
- ethnic minority
- empathy