The current highly polarized U.S. political culture impedes people’s ability to live and work together effectively. Here we examine one factor that may play a role: selective empathy based on shared political ideology. Across seven studies (N = 3,476), participants read about a hypothetical politician and his political ideology, trustworthiness, or both. Participants reported their empathy for the politician after learning he was fined (Studies 1–6) or injured (Study 7). When trustworthiness alone was manipulated, liberals and conservatives expressed similar levels of empathy, with greater empathy for the more trustworthy politician. However, when the politician’s ideology alone was manipulated, participants reported greater empathy for the politician who shared their ideology. When trustworthiness and ideology were manipulated, selective empathy was observed when the politician was trustworthy. Participant ideology alone had little effect on empathy. The results suggest that empathy is sensitive to both trustworthiness and ideological match, but not ideology itself.

当前高度分化的美国政治文化阻碍了人们有效地共同生活和工作的能力。在这里，我们研究了一个可能起作用的因素：基于共同政治意识形态的选择性移情。七项研究（N= 3,476），参与者阅读了一个假设的政治家及其政治意识形态、可信度，或两者兼而有之。参与者在得知他被罚款（研究 1-6）或受伤（研究 7）后报告了他们对政治家的同情。当单独操纵可信度时，自由派和保守派表达了相似程度的同理心，对更值得信赖的政治家的同理心更大。然而，当政治家的意识形态单独被操纵时，参与者报告说，他们对分享他们意识形态的政治家表现出更大的同情。当可信度和意识形态被操纵时，当政治家值得信赖时，就会观察到选择性的同理心。单独的参与者意识形态对同理心几乎没有影响。结果表明，同理心对可信度和意识形态匹配都很敏感，但对意识形态本身不敏感。