The Effects of Empathy, Social Structure and Social Environment on Individuals’ Moral Behavior Choices in China

Based on the data of the Survey of Residents’ Living and Psychological Conditions in Jiangsu Province, China in 2016, this article analyzed the influencing mechanism of individuals’ moral behavior choices when facing a conflict between righteousness and self-interest. The binary logistic regression models indicated that individuals’ choices of moral behaviors do not differ among various social classes. Empathy has a remarkable influence, but its impact mechanism is complex. The social environment has a significant effect, where malignant events have a stronger influence than others. Furthermore, social environment has more significant effect on individual moral behavior choices than empathy, so, creating a benevolent and harmonious social environment will allow the individual’s empathy to come into full play.