Abstract
The study was conducted to investigate the elaboration and memorisation of the emotionally charged refugee debate with reference to the possible influences of empathic feelings, political attitude and mood. It was hypothesised that empathy towards refugees correlates positively with advanced elaboration and memorisation of the refugee debate. Participants’ personal empathy was assessed through a self-report questionnaire which differentiates between four distinct dimensions of empathy. Afterwards, participants listened to an interview with a politician from a German populist party about refugee policies concluding with a test about the content. As expected, the results revealed a positive correlation between the empathy dimensions’ Fantasy and Personal Distress and the correct answers of the open-ended question test. The Fantasy dimension of empathy was significantly correlated with the elaboration and memorisation of the extreme and populist positions in the refugee debate. Important practical implications as well as limitations of the study were discussed.
Highlights
The refugee debate is polarising and emotionally charged in Germany and Europe
The results revealed a positive correlation between the empathy dimensions’ Fantasy and Personal Distress and the correct answers of the open-ended question test
The study dealt with the influence of empathy on elaboration and memorisation of emotionally loaded political debates with regard to the refugee situation
Summary
The refugee debate is polarising and emotionally charged in Germany and Europe. As the number of people seeking asylum is on the rise, many feel empathic for the refugees’ plight and try to be welcoming towards them. Discussions are usually accompanied by strong emotions like empathic feelings and fury, as it can be seen on Internet forums where arguments about the current refugee situation regularly become offensive and abusive. Possible consequences of these kinds of emotionally charged debates can be seen in the United Kingdom where a majority voted to leave the European Union in the referendum. Empathy enables people to imagine the refugees’ needs who had to escape from their plight and life-threatening circumstances Is it possible to follow the political debate analytically whilst feeling empathic emotions or does empathy even support analytical processing of the debate?
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