Abstract

The present study investigated the hypothesis that the category-based process will reduce the accuracy in the perception of empathy for the target person because the target's individualistic information is not perceived as salient. Six undergraduate students (3 males and 3 females) participated at once in this experiment and were randomly assigned into one of the three groups in which their identities were differently manipulated. In the gender-based identity condition, the categorization condition, participants' gender identity was treated to be salient. It was reasoned that subjects will perceive others by means of differentiation in-group from out-group on the basis gender. In the group-based identity condition, the recategorization condition, subjects were instructed to identity themselves as members belonging to the same group. Finally in the individual-based identity condition, the decategorization condition, subjects were instructed to identify themselves in terms of their own nicknames. Thus both gender and group identities were eliminated. Conforming the predictions, the results indicated that subjects in the gender-based identity condition showed lower accuracy in the perception empathy as compared to the accuracy obtained in the other two conditions.