Abstract：Objective To examine the influence of watching-eyes effect on intergroup empathy bias. Methods Sixty-four participants were recruited and asked to read positive and negative stories with or without eyes images, which described the experiences of members of both in-and out-group members. They were also asked to rate how good and bad the stories were. Results Under both positive empathy and negative empathy, the main effect of group belonging was significant, and the empathy of in-group members was significantly higher than that of out-group members. Also there were significant interactions between group belonging and watching-eyes. Specifically, empathy of in-group was significantly higher than that of out-group when the eyes images were present. There was no significant difference in the level of empathy of in-and out-group when the eyes images were present. Conclusion Watching-eyes effect can promote the individual’s empathy of the out-group members and reduce the intergroup empathy bias.
