Sorry, not sorry: Unpopular individuals report but don’t display empathy and prosocial behaviors

ABSTRACTThe resource control theory postulates that the combination of prosocial strategies and coercive strategies are useful in gaining and maintaining resources that allow one to be perceived popular within society. Often prosocial behaviors appear in conjunction with empathy. The social-reconnection hypothesis suggest that prosocial behaviors might be executed when an individual fears they are or might be socially excluded. However, some research shows that mixed feelings arise and increased attendance to acceptance might take place but not actual helping behaviors. The current study examined eighty-six individuals and the impact of perceived popularity on empathy and prosocial behaviors. Specifically, self-reported popular and unpopular individuals were examined based on resource control strategy usage, empathy quotient (EQ) scores, helping behavior, and galvanic skin response to an emotion inducing video about rejection and bullying. Unpopular individuals self-reported higher levels of empathy but did not display greater galvanic skin responses or more helping behavior than popular self-reported individuals.KEYWORDS: Empathyperceived popularityprosocial behaviorsskin conductance Disclosure statementThe manuscript is not under review, nor has it been published, elsewhere.Authors’ contributionsAll authors made meaningful contributions to the research and manuscriptAvailability of data and materialThe datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.Consent to participateAll participants were informed of their rights and had to sign an informed consent document before beginning the study.Consent for publicationAll authors give consent for the article and materials to be published.Ethics approvalAll of the research described in the paper was conducted in accordance with APA’s guidelines for the ethical treatment of human participants, and was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Missouri State University.Additional informationFundingThis research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.