Cognitive and existential-motivational pathways from empathy to prosocial behavior: a parallel mediation study in a Chinese university sample

Abstract

Objective This study examined a parallel mediation model in which empathy was hypothesized to be associated with prosocial behavior through two theoretically distinct pathways: a capability-oriented pathway via self-efficacy and an existential-motivational pathway via meaning in life, among Chinese university students. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 1,549 university students (M age = 19.47 years, SD = 1.05, range 18–23; 71.7% female). Participants completed validated Chinese-language measures of empathy, self-efficacy, meaning in life, and prosocial behavior. Parallel multiple mediation analysis using PROCESS Model 4, adjusting for age and gender, with bootstrap confidence intervals (5,000 resamples) was employed to examine direct and indirect associations among variables. Results Empathy showed a significant positive direct association with prosocial behavior (c′ = 0.175, p < 0.001). Both self-efficacy (indirect effect = 0.192, 95% CI [0.147, 0.238]) and meaning in life (indirect effect = 0.075, 95% CI [0.044, 0.110]) showed significant positive indirect associations with prosocial behavior. A formal bootstrap contrast indicated that the self-efficacy pathway was associated with a significantly larger indirect effect than the meaning-in-life pathway (contrast = 0.117, 95% CI [0.061, 0.173]). The overall model accounted for 37.9% of variance in prosocial behavior (R2 = 0.379). A supplementary analysis decomposing meaning in life indicated that this pathway was carried specifically by search for meaning rather than presence of meaning, an exploratory finding not anticipated a priori. Conclusion These findings are consistent with a model of prosocial motivation in which empathy is associated with prosocial behavior through both a capability-oriented (self-efficacy) and a smaller, more tentative existential-motivational (meaning in life) indirect pathway. Given the cross-sectional design, these results should be interpreted as patterns of association rather than causal mechanisms; interventions incorporating both capability-building and meaning-making components alongside empathy training may offer complementary benefits for fostering prosocial engagement, pending validation through prospective intervention research.