Empathic Concern and Altruistic Allocation Under Loss Framing

Abstract

Many studies do not simultaneously manipulate empathic concern and social evaluation, making it difficult to disentangle the determinants of altruistic behavior. This study examined whether loss framing elicits altruistic allocation beyond the effects of social evaluation. The empathy–altruism hypothesis was compared with the empathy-specific evaluation hypothesis using a dictator game with a 2 × 2 design that manipulated recipients’ loss framing and social evaluation. Recipients were described as having experienced a loss due to bad luck or no loss, and allocations were made under conditions of high or low social evaluation. The analysis was conducted using data from 100 Japanese undergraduates who participated in a laboratory experiment. The results showed that allocations were higher in the loss-framed condition than in the no-loss condition only under high social evaluation, with no difference observed under low social evaluation. These findings support the empathy-specific evaluation hypothesis, suggesting that altruistic responses to loss framing depend on reputational incentives rather than unconditional altruism.