People’s default levels of empathy toward members of a distant group tend to be low. The current research shows that favorable perceptions regarding the personality of a group’s leader can stimulate empathy and pro-social behavior toward his or her countrymen. In four experimental studies (N = 884), we found that exposure to a news article that positively (vs. negatively) characterizes a foreign national leader (vs. non-national leader) led to (a) increased levels of empathy toward distressed citizens of that leader’s nation, (b) willingness to help those citizens, (c) motivation to invest time in inspecting additional information elucidating the circumstances that led to this adversity, and (d) an actual monetary donation for the benefit of those people. This effect turned out to be prominent when the national leader’s domestic popularity was perceived as high. The results show that national leaders are in a position to contribute to more empathetic inter-society relations and enhance pro-social behavior.

人们对遥远群体成员的默认同理心水平往往很低。目前的研究表明，对团体领袖性格的正面看法可以激发对其同胞的同理心和亲社会行为。在四项实验研究中（N= 884），我们发现接触正面（与负面）描述外国领导人（与非国家领导人）的新闻文章导致（a）对该领导人所在国家陷入困境的公民的同情水平提高，（ b) 帮助这些公民的意愿，(c) 投入时间检查说明导致这种逆境的情况的额外信息的动机，以及 (d) 为这些人的利益而进行的实际货币捐赠。当国家领导人在国内的受欢迎程度被认为很高时，这种影响变得很突出。结果表明，国家领导人能够为更善解人意的社会间关系做出贡献，并加强亲社会行为。