Empathy in individuals at risk for child physical abuse: The effects of victim's pain cues on aggression

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Exposure of an aggressor to the suffering of his/her victim generally inhibits subsequent attacks [e.g., Baron, Aggression as a function of magnitude of victim's pain cues, level of prior anger arousal, and aggressor-victim similarity, J Pers Soc Psychol 18:48-54, 1971a], presumably because of an empathic process. Physically abusive parents and individuals at high-risk for child physical abuse are thought to present a deficit of empathy [e.g., Milner et al., Empathic responsiveness and affective reactivity to infant stimuli in high- and low-risk for physical child abuse mothers, Child Abuse Negl 19:767-780, 1995]. This study examined whether individuals at high-risk for child physical abuse show empathy and inhibit aggression when exposed to cues thought to be associated with victim suffering. Eighty undergraduate female students participated. A 2 x 2 factorial design based upon 2 levels of the participant's risk status (high, low) and 2 levels of victim's pain cues (present, absent) was employed. Findings suggest that high-risk participants in the pain cues condition selected higher intensities of shocks to aggress than high-risk participants in the absent cues condition. However, risk status was not associated with reports of personal distress or empathic concern. Aggress. Behav. 31:336-349, 2005.