Exploring situational empathy and intergroup empathy bias among people with two opposing cultural norms: Collectivism and individualism.

Focusing on empathic behavior of Iranians, Americans, and Biculturals, this paper investigated how living as a bicultural in a culturally different environment affects situational empathy and intergroup empathy bias. Findings show participants' cultural background and group identity significantly impacted their empathic responsiveness in favor of people with collectivist cultural norms. Further, people raised in a socio-centric/collectivist society reported higher empathy for in-group members compared to those raised in an ego-centric/individualist society. Regardless of nationality, affective empathy was reported higher than cognitive empathy. The same trend was found for individualist cultural norms, especially for biculturals, suggesting there is a global trend of individualism. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]