Psychological research on empathy typically focuses on understanding its effects on empathizers and empathic targets. Little is known, however, about the effects of empathy beyond its dyadic context. Taking an extradyadic perspective, we examined how third-party observers evaluate empathizers. Seven experiments documented that observers' evaluations of empathizers depend on the target of empathy. Empathizers (vs. nonempathizers) of a stressful experience were respected/liked more when the empathic target was positive (e.g., children's hospital worker), but not when the target was negative (e.g., White supremacist; Experiments 1 and 2). Empathizers were respected/liked more when responding to a positive target who disclosed a positive experience (i.e., a personal accomplishment), but less when responding to a negative target who disclosed a positive experience (Experiment 3). These effects were partly, but not solely, attributable to the positivity of empathic responses (Experiment 4). Expressing empathy (vs. condemnation) toward a negative target resulted in less respect/liking when the disclosed experience was linked to the source of target valence (i.e., stress from White supremacist job; Experiments 5 through 7), but more respect/liking when the experience was unrelated to the source of target valence (i.e., stress from cancer; Experiment 7). Overall, empathizers were viewed as warmer, but to a lesser extent when responding to a negative target. These findings highlight the importance of considering the extradyadic impact of empathy and suggest that although people are often encouraged to empathize with disliked others, they are not always favored for doing so. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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对移情者的评价取决于移情的目标。

关于移情的心理学研究通常侧重于了解其对移情者和移情目标的影响。然而，关于移情在其二元上下文之外的影响知之甚少。从超二元的角度来看，我们研究了第三方观察者如何评估同理心者。七个实验证明，观察者对共情者的评价取决于共情的目标。当共情目标是积极的（例如，儿童医院工作人员）时，有压力经历的移情者（相对于非移情者）更受尊重/喜欢，但当目标是消极的（例如，白人至上主义者；实验 1 和 2）时则不然。在回应披露积极经历（即个人成就）的积极目标时，同理心者更受尊重/喜欢，但在回应披露积极经历的消极目标时更少（实验 3）。这些影响部分但不完全归因于共情反应的积极性（实验 4）。当所披露的经历与目标效价的来源（即来自白人至上主义工作的压力；实验 5 到 7）相关联时，对负面目标表达同理心（相对于谴责）会导致更少的尊重/喜欢，但更多的尊重/喜欢当该经验与目标价的来源无关（即，来自癌症的压力；实验 7）。总体而言，同情者被视为更热情，但在回应负面目标时程度较低。这些发现强调了考虑同理心的超二元影响的重要性，并表明尽管人们经常被鼓励去同情不喜欢的人，但他们并不总是喜欢这样做。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2020 APA，保留所有权利）。