Episodic simulation and episodic memory can increase intentions to help others

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Abstract
Significance: Humans are readily willing to help individuals in need, in part because they can adopt the thoughts and feelings of others. Here, we provide evidence of an additional mechanism facilitating empathic responses. Our experiments revealed that, when presented with a situation depicting another person’s plight, participants who imagined an event in which they help the person (episodic simulation) or remembered a related past event of actually helping others (episodic memory) showed increased prosocial intentions. The findings reported here provide a starting point for research that could be used to develop new strategies targeted at episodic mechanisms for promoting empathy, as well as to guide research that attempts to characterize and improve empathic deficits in patient populations.

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