Anti-immigrant sentiment is significant, particularly toward the Latino population. This has led to a climate of fear and discrimination, particularly in regions with large Latino populations. One way to respond to this negative climate is to promote social empathy. Social empathy is the ability to understand people by entering into their situations in ways that reveal inequality and disparity, and use this insight to effect social change. Social empathy is linked to social responsibility and collective caring. Therefore, our research question was, are there significant differences between students of color and Caucasian students in social empathy, and specifically, do Latinos differ from Caucasians and other racial groups? We hypothesized that racial and ethnic groups with more collectivist cultures would demonstrate more social empathy, in spite of an anti-immigration climate and discrimination. This research question, which emerged out of a larger study, was designed to assess attitudes towards social empathy across racial groups and identify possible values that may explain any differences found.
Using Qualtrics, an on-line survey software program, 495 undergraduate and graduate students were invited to participate in taking the Social Empathy Index (SEI), a 22 item Likert-scale assessment of attitudes toward social empathy. Questions on the SEI explored attitudes towards social responsibility, empathy, optimism in the social and economic system, and the role of government in social well-being. 312 students participated for a 65% response rate, although only 294 surveys were completed sufficiently to include.
The reliability analysis on the SEI indicated excellent internal consistency (.810). A test-retest reliability analysis was completed on the SEI utilizing the scores that were generated from two administrations of the scale, with at least 5 days between them. The Pearson's r correlation coefficient was .850 (p = .000), while the Spearman's rho correlation coefficient was .840 (p = .000). Utilizing one-way ANOVA, we analyzed the SEI items. The comparison variable was “race/ethnicity.” The analysis pinpointed seven statistically significant differences between the three racial groups on items that included willingness to help strangers, identification with the poor, and beliefs in social responsibility. The statistically significant items suggest that Latinos identify as more collectivist, more optimistic, and more socially empathic. Latinos may be more willing to help a stranger than either Caucasians or members of other racial groups. While American Indians and Asians are collective societies, they may not share other traits of collectivism found among Latinos such as familismo (family), personalismo (relationships), and respeto (respect), which may contribute more strongly to collectivist beliefs.
Using these research findings, integrated with understanding of Latino community values from previous research, there are important implications for future immigration policy and social work practice. Development of social empathy, which the data suggest is higher among racial and ethnic groups, particularly Latinos, can be promoted to enhance dialogue between groups and help create social policies that diminish fear and discrimination.