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Standing in Others’ Shoes: Empathy and Positional Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Akay, Alpaslan

    (Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University)

  • Karabulut, Gökhan

    (Istanbul University, Department of Economics)

  • Terzioğlu, Bilge

    (Istanbul University, Department of Economics)

Abstract
Studies show that people are concerned with other people’s consumption position in a varying degree with respect to the type of goods consumed and individual characteristics. Using both survey experiments and a large survey of subjective wellbeing(SWB) dataset, this paper presents robust associations between the degree of empathic capacity and positional concerns for consumption items involving pleasure and pain. The paper exploits both empathy quotient (EQ) and interpersonal reactivity index (IRI) measures of empathic capacity, i.e., dispositional empathy, which are sufficient measures capturing affective and cognitive aspects of empathy. Positional concerns are identified directly using a series of stated choice experiments and indirectly using the SWB approach. The main result of the paper is that positional concerns vary substantially with the levels of empathic capacity. Both EQ and IRI are found to be positively associated with positional concerns for “goods” (e.g., after-tax income, market value of a luxury car), reflecting a degree of selfregarded feelings and behavior to reduce personal distress, and negatively associated with positional concerns for “bads” (e.g., working hours and poverty rates), reflecting a degree of other-regarding feelings and behavior. The results are robust with respect to various checks including statistical specifications, reference groups, and omitted variables (e.g., prosocial behavior and competitivity) that could bias the results.

Suggested Citation

  • Akay, Alpaslan & Karabulut, Gökhan & Terzioğlu, Bilge, 2019. "Standing in Others’ Shoes: Empathy and Positional Behavior," Working Papers in Economics 773, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:gunwpe:0773
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2077/61710
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Antonino Callea & Dalila De Rosa & Giovanni Ferri & Francesca Lipari & Marco Costanzi, 2022. "Can Emotional Intelligence promote Individual Wellbeing and protect from perceptions' traps?," CERBE Working Papers wpC39, CERBE Center for Relationship Banking and Economics.
    2. Alpaslan Akay & Gökhan Karabulut, 2020. "Personality and positionality-evidence from survey experiments with alternative goods," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(1), pages 123-156, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dispositional Empathy; Survey Experiments; Positional Concerns;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement

    NEP fields

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