C. Daniel Batson (born March 15, 1943) is an American social psychologist. He has two doctoral degrees, in theology (from
Princeton Theological Seminary
Princeton Theological Seminary (PTSem), officially The Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, is a private school of theology in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1812 under the auspices of Archibald Alexander, the General Assembly of ...
) and psychology (from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
's
Department of Psychology). Batson obtained his doctorate under
John Darley and taught at the
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...
. He retired in 2006 and now is an emeritus professor in the psychology department at the University of Tennessee. He is best known for his contributions to three fields: the social psychology of
altruism
Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core as ...
,
empathic concern Empathic concern refers to other-oriented emotions elicited by, and congruent with the perceived welfare of, someone in need. These other-oriented emotions include feelings of tenderness, sympathy, compassion, soft-heartedness, and the like.
Empa ...
, and
psychology of religion
Psychology of religion consists of the application of List of psychological research methods, psychological methods and interpretive frameworks to the diverse contents of Religion, religious traditions as well as to both religious and Irreligion, ...
.
On altruism
Batson has become well known for the
empathy-altruism Empathy-altruism is a form of altruism based on moral emotions or feelings for others.
Social exchange theory holds that in seemingly altruistic behavior benefits to the altruist outweigh the costs the altruist bears and thus such behavior is sel ...
hypothesis, which states that "feeling empathy for
person in need evokes motivation to help
hat personin which these benefits to self are not the ultimate goal of helping; they are unintended consequences" (Batson & Shaw 1991, p. 114). The theory, initially proposed as an explanation of the so-called "empathy-helping relationship", implies that pure
altruism
Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core as ...
is possible and that
psychological egoism
Psychological egoism is the view that humans are always motivated by self-interest and selfishness, even in what seem to be acts of altruism. It claims that, when people choose to help others, they do so ultimately because of the personal benefi ...
is false. Indeed, Aronson, Wilson and Akert (2005) have described Batson as "the strongest proponent that people often help others purely out of the goodness of their hearts" (Aronson et al., 2005, p362). Batson has published
experimental research
An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...
to support the empathy-altruism hypothesis against various alternative egoistic explanations. Critics who believe that all apparently altruistic actions are actually egoistic have attacked the theory (see, for example, the competing
negative state relief model
The negative-state relief model states that human beings have an innate drive to reduce negative moods. They can be reduced by engaging in any mood-elevating behaviour, including helping behaviour, as it is paired with positive value such as smile ...
). More on the empathy-altruism hypothesis can be found in a number of social psychology textbooks, including Brehm and Kassin (1996).
Batson is also the co-author of an often-cited study examining bystander intervention in theology students (Darley & Batson, 1973). In this study, students' religious views and personalities did not correlate with their willingness to help a needy bystander. Rather, the best predictor of whether a student would stop to help was how hurried they felt. Since some students were assigned work on the
parable of the Good Samaritan
The parable of the Good Samaritan is told by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. It is about a traveler (implicitly understood to be Jewish) who is stripped of clothing, beaten, and left half dead alongside the road. First, a Jewish priest and then a ...
, and the assignment had no effect on their behavior, the study has been cited as evidence that exposure to the parable does not make people more helpful. There has been debate about whether Batson used appropriate statistics to analyze this study (Greenwald, 1975).
On empathy
Work in
social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the r ...
has for a long time been interested in the distinction between imagining the other and imagining oneself, and in particular in the emotional and motivational consequences of these two perspectives. A number of Batson's studies documented that focusing on another's feelings may evoke stronger
empathic concern Empathic concern refers to other-oriented emotions elicited by, and congruent with the perceived welfare of, someone in need. These other-oriented emotions include feelings of tenderness, sympathy, compassion, soft-heartedness, and the like.
Empa ...
, while explicitly putting oneself into the target's shoes induces both empathic concern and
personal distress
In psychology, personal distress is an aversive, self-focused emotional reaction (e.g., anxiety, worry, discomfort) to the apprehension or comprehension of another's emotional state or condition. This negative affective state often occurs as a resu ...
. In one such study, Batson and colleagues investigated the affective consequences of different perspective-taking instructions when participants listened to a story about Katie Banks, a young college student struggling after the death of her parents. This study demonstrated that different instructions had distinct effects on how participants perceived the target’s situation. Notably, participants imagining themselves in Katie’s place showed stronger signs of discomfort and personal distress than participants focusing on her responses and feelings, or participants instructed to take an objective, detached point of view. Also, both perspective-taking instructions differed from the detached perspective by resulting in higher empathic concern. This may help explain why observing a need situation does not always produce
prosocial behavior
Prosocial behavior, or intent to benefit others, is a social behavior that "benefit other people or society as a whole", "such as helping, sharing, donating, co-operating, and volunteering". Obeying the rules and conforming to socially accepted ...
: if perceiving another person in an emotionally or physically painful circumstance elicits personal distress, the observer may tend not to fully attend to the other's experience and as a result may not behave sympathetically.
Batson recently collaborated with
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
neuroscientist
Jean Decety
Jean Decety is an American-French neuroscientist specializing in developmental neuroscience, affective neuroscience, and social neuroscience. His research focuses on the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms underpinning social cognition, p ...
on a study using
functional neuroimaging
Functional neuroimaging is the use of neuroimaging technology to measure an aspect of brain function, often with a view to understanding the relationship between activity in certain brain areas and specific mental functions. It is primarily used a ...
to investigate the neural underpinnings of
empathy
Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, co ...
and personal distress. While being scanned, participants watched a series of video clips of patients undergoing painful medical treatment. They were asked to either put themselves explicitly in the shoes of the patient (imagine self), or to focus on their feelings and affective expressions (imagine other). The behavioral data confirmed that explicitly projecting oneself into an aversive situation leads to higher personal distress whereas focusing on the
emotional and behavioral reactions of another's plight yields greater empathic concern and less personal distress. The neuroimaging data were consistent with this finding and provided insights into the neural correlates of these distinct behavioral responses. The self-perspective evoked stronger hemodynamic responses in brain regions involved in coding the motivational-affective dimensions of pain, including bilateral insular cortices, anterior cingulate cortex, the amygdala, and various structures involved in motor preparation. The
amygdala
The amygdala (; plural: amygdalae or amygdalas; also '; Latin from Greek, , ', 'almond', 'tonsil') is one of two almond-shaped clusters of nuclei located deep and medially within the temporal lobes of the brain's cerebrum in complex verteb ...
plays a critical role in the evaluation of actual or potential threats. Imagining oneself in a painful and potentially dangerous situation thus might have triggered a stronger fearful and/or aversive response than imagining someone else in the same situation.
On religion
Batson's most famous contribution to the
psychology of religion
Psychology of religion consists of the application of List of psychological research methods, psychological methods and interpretive frameworks to the diverse contents of Religion, religious traditions as well as to both religious and Irreligion, ...
is his argument that the traditional distinction made by
Gordon Allport
Gordon Willard Allport (November 11, 1897 – October 9, 1967) was an American psychologist. Allport was one of the first psychologists to focus on the study of the personality, and is often referred to as one of the founding figures of personal ...
(Allport & Ross, 1967)
[Allport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 432-433.] between intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations does not exhaust all possible religious orientations; rather, he believes it is important to refer to what he calls Quest, a form of religiosity that views questions and their answers as of equal importance (Batson & Schoenrade, 1991a; 1991b). This view has been controversial, and critics have questioned whether Quest really correlates with any other variable germane to religiosity. Batson has also written about religious experiences, defending a four-stage model based on
Graham Wallas
Graham Wallas (31 May 1858 – 9 August 1932) was an English socialist, social psychologist, educationalist, a leader of the Fabian Society and a co-founder of the London School of Economics.
Biography
Born in Monkwearmouth, Sunderland, Walla ...
's four-stage model of problem-solving in the psychology of
creativity
Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary w ...
(Batson, Schoenrade & Ventis, 1993).
Bibliography
* Batson, C.D. (2011). ''Altruism in Humans''. New York: Oxford University Press.
* Batson, C.D. (2009). "These things called empathy: eight related but distinct phenomena". In J. Decety & W. Ickes (Eds.), ''The Social Neuroscience of Empathy'' (pp. 3–15). Cambridge: MIT press.
* Batson, C.D. (2009). "Two forms of perspective taking: imagining how another feels and imagining how you would feel". In K. D. Markman, W.M.P. Klein and J.A. Suhr (Eds.), ''Handbook of Imagination and Mental Simulation'' (pp. 267–279). New York: Psychology Press.
* Batson, C.D., Schoenrade, P & Ventis, L. (1993). ''Religion and the Individual''. New York: Oxford University Press.
* Batson, C.D. (1991). ''The Altruism Question: Toward a Social-Psychological Answer'', Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
*
*
*Batson, C.D., Schoenrade, P. & Ventis. L.W. (1993). Religion and the Individual. New York. Cambridge University press
*
* Batson, C.D. (1976). "Religion as prosocial: Agent or double agent?" 'Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion''. 15, 29-45.
*
Additional references
* Aronson, E., Wilson, T.D. & Akert, R.M. (2005). Social Psychology. New Jersey: Pearson. .
* Brehm, J. & Kassin, S. (1996). ''Social Psychology''Boston: Houghton Mifflin (Third Edition). .
*
See also
*
Social cognition
Social cognition is a sub-topic of various branches of psychology that focuses on how people process, store, and apply information about other people and social situations. It focuses on the role that cognitive processes play in social interactio ...
*
Altruism
Altruism is the principle and moral practice of concern for the welfare and/or happiness of other human beings or animals, resulting in a quality of life both material and spiritual. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures and a core as ...
*
Empathy
Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference, that is, the capacity to place oneself in another's position. Definitions of empathy encompass a broad range of social, co ...
*
Empathic concern Empathic concern refers to other-oriented emotions elicited by, and congruent with the perceived welfare of, someone in need. These other-oriented emotions include feelings of tenderness, sympathy, compassion, soft-heartedness, and the like.
Empa ...
*
Empathy-altruism Empathy-altruism is a form of altruism based on moral emotions or feelings for others.
Social exchange theory holds that in seemingly altruistic behavior benefits to the altruist outweigh the costs the altruist bears and thus such behavior is sel ...
*
Psychology of religion
Psychology of religion consists of the application of List of psychological research methods, psychological methods and interpretive frameworks to the diverse contents of Religion, religious traditions as well as to both religious and Irreligion, ...
*
Social neuroscience
Social neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding the relationship between social experiences and biological systems. Humans are fundamentally a social species, rather than solitary. As such, '' Homo sapiens'' create eme ...
*
Social psychology
Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the r ...
References
External links
* http://batson.socialpsychology.org/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Batson, Daniel
1943 births
Living people
American psychologists
Social psychologists
Psychologists of religion
Princeton University alumni
Princeton Theological Seminary alumni
University of Kansas faculty