Appraisal-driven Altruism: Examining the Paradoxical Role of Perceived Importance of Helping Others

Prosocial action often arises from empathizing with another person’s aversive experience. Yet this empathic reactivity can also be taxing, sometimes reducing the likelihood of helping or impairing action performance. These conflicting influences have been described through the distinction between compassion and personal distress, which represent the promoting and demoting effects of such empathic experiences. Although this framework has generated valuable findings and has been applied in programs designed to cultivate compassion and a prosocial mindset, studies have revealed additional nuances. For example, induced stress may promote action by increasing the sense of urgency. Therefore, another framework is needed to account for the flexible influences of empathic experience. In this study, we aim to contribute to addressing this gap by proposing an appraisal-driven account of prosocial action. Specifically, we demonstrate that perceived importance (PI) can largely account for how prosocial action unfolds and that active regulation is necessary to explain behavioral adaptation arising from prosocial motivation. To examine this perception-to-action mechanism, we adopted a hybrid approach combining hypothesis validation with explanatory analyses. Participants (N = 53) completed a redesigned computer-based effort task in which they attempted to rescue a partner from potential threats, including electric stimulation and monetary loss. Self-report, behavioral performance, and psychological scale data were collected. Results showed that PI increased affective stress and impaired performance, yet performance improved in high-stakes conditions despite elevated stress, distinctly in action initiation. Together, these findings support the appraisal-driven account and highlight its potential to explain the affective dynamics underlying prosocial behavior.