This paper explores the role of empathic arousal in mediating helping behavior. Undergraduates listened to a recording of a radio newscast that described the situation of a young woman whose parents had been killed in an automobile accident. Subjects were instructed either to imagine how the woman felt about her situation (imagine condition), or to observe the broadcasting techniques (observe condition). Just prior to hearing the newscast, subjects were given a pill (in the context of another experiment) and were told it would either relax them (relax condition) or arouse them (arouse condition). If empathic arousal mediates helping subjects in the image-relax condition, and if they should feel empathic arousal due to the imagine set and not misattribute the arousal to the pill, they should help more than subjects in the other three conditions. This predicted pattern was found. (Author)