Results suggest that neglectful parents cannot develop the helping response set to care for their children because the observation of a child's signal of need does not lead to the experience of emotions that motivate helping or because they experience these emotions, but specific cognitions modify the motivation to help. In one group of parents, neglectful behavior was produced by the absence of empathy. This absence was due to two possible reasons: parents were not aware that the child was in need, and/or parents did not value the child's welfare. In the second group of neglectful parents, neglectful behavior would occur because at the time empathy was experienced, a very high cost was assigned to the helping behavior associated with satisfying the child's needs. In a third group, neglectful behavior would be produced when parents experienced a predominance of personal distress over empathy. In these cases, neglectful behavior would occur when one or more of the following conditions were fulfilled: it was possible to escape from the observation of the child's signal of suffering; helping was not associated with enhancement of mood, relief of negative state, or development of empathic joy; failure to help was not associated with social punishment or negative social evaluations; and helping was not associated with social reward. In a fourth group, neglectful behavior might have been produced as a consequence of the utilization of the empathy avoidance mechanism. Figure and references