Question

Suppose Dan is late for a very important meeting. As he runs toward his car, he sees a woman using crutches who has dropped a large stack of papers onto a busy sidewalk. Dan feels a great deal of empathy for this woman because he remembers how tough it was when he had to use crutches a couple years before. According to the empathy-altruism hypothesis, Dan will

Answer 1

The empathy-altruism hypothesis by Batson states that "feeling empathy for [a] person in need evokes motivation to help [that person] in which these benefits to self are not the ultimate goal of helping; they are unintended consequences"

According to this theory , Dan will help the woman gather her papers even though he is late for his important meeting. He will do so because he has been in her shoes, that is t say, he empathizes with her situation.