# Empathy Changes Among Chinese College Students in the Context of Marketization

## TL;DR

This study examines how empathy among Chinese college students has decreased as China transitioned to a market economy.

## Contribution

The study provides empirical evidence linking marketization reforms to declining empathy levels in Chinese college students.

## Key findings

- Empathy levels among Chinese college students declined from 2009 to 2019.
- Empathy was negatively correlated with the level of marketization in China.

## Abstract

China’s marketization refers to the systemic reform process of transitioning from a planned economy to a market economy, which has significantly contributed to the country’s economic development. However, the interest-oriented nature of marketization may also somewhat erode social morality. Given that empathy is the basis of morality and prosocial behavior, the present study produced a cross-temporal meta-analysis of 89 studies using the Chinese version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index as a measuring instrument and outlined the empathy changes among 48,400 Chinese college students from 2009 to 2019. Then, this study tested the conjecture that empathy is weakening in marketization process. The results reveal that Chinese college students’ empathy level declined over time and was negatively correlated with the marketization level. This finding contributes to understanding the relationship between the marketization reform and moral psychology change.