Approach-Avoidance Action Patterns as Indicators of Empathic ‘Care Drive’ Strength

Abstract

This two-experiment study involves the use and validation of a paradigm to assess approach behavior in response to stimuli (e.g., persons in distress) hypothesized to be associated with activation of empathy, conceptualized as a “care drive” with associated behavioral predispositions. Specifically, Experiment 1 of the study tests whether adult fearful facial expressions (representing persons in distress) elicit approach behavior across individuals recruited from undergraduate classes. Experiment 2 attempts to replicate and extend the results of Experiment 1 to examine whether this tendency toward approach to fearful faces is associated with the strength of approach motivation for infant faces (in a separate task) and individual differences in psychopathic traits