Learning to care: An in-school humane education program improves affective and cognitive empathy among lower-elementary students

Abstract

Empathy is associated with prosociality and beneficial outcomes across the lifespan. We investigated the ability a school-based program with animal-based content to affect elementary students' empathic development through a randomized control trial conducted over one academic year with ∼600 first-grade students in six schools in four cities across eastern China. Both the affective and cognitive empathy of program-participating students fared better than non-participating students. The size of these effects were “medium” (cognitive empathy) and “large” (affective empathy). A school-based program can thus improve both types of human-directed empathy among lower elementary students through animal (and nature) content. Found among a large group of Chinese students, these results supporting the ability of such programs to promote healthy development among a traditionally-understudied population.

Keywords

• Empathy
• Affective empathy
• Cognitive empathy
• School-based programs
• Elementary school
• China