Although empathic morality can explain a lot of prosocial behavior, a comprehensive theory also requires moral principles. I suggested in chapter 8 that moral principles can reduce empathic bias and over-arousal. Another reason for moral principles' importance is that my analysis of bystander and transgressor encounters was incomplete, because bystanders and transgressors not only respond to victims with empathy and guilt but they may also come equipped with moral principles that are reflected in their response. The principles can be activated by the empathy and guilt with which they are associated; but principles can transcend the situation and transform the victim from someone to be pitied into someone who represents a larger category of injustice or lack of human concern. Moral principles can also help a person decide which victim to help when a choice must be made and whether caring or justice should prevail when they conflict (chapter 11).

I here introduce moral principles and discuss whether empathic emotions are congruent with them and can thus be embedded in them. I then introduce reciprocity (mentioned briefly earlier), which underlies many justice principles. Empathy and reciprocity are orthogonal; I suggest how they may combine to produce a powerful justice motive. Finally, I hypothesize that, given empathy's congruence with moral principles, empathy may play an important role in moral judgment and reasoning. Developmental processes linking empathy and moral principles are proposed in chapter 10.