Empathy-altruism

Empathy-altruism is a form of altruism based on moral emotions or feelings for others.

Social exchange theory represents a seemingly altruistic behavior which benefits the altruist and outweighs the cost the altruist bears. Thus such behavior is self-interested. In contrast, Daniel Batson holds that people help others in need out of genuine concern for the well-being of the other person. The key ingredient to such helping is empathic concern. According to Batson's empathy-altruism hypothesis, if someone feels empathy towards another person, they will help them, regardless of what they can gain from it. An alternative hypothesis is empathy-joy, which states a person helps because they find pleasure at seeing another person experience relief. When a person does not feel empathy, the standards of social exchange theory apply.