Empathy Intervention Research Articles

Admiration in adolescents’ judgments on situations involving hurting

This article aims to characterize judgments about situations that involve causing harm and investigate whether judgments of situations in which participants' idols differed from judgments made for episodes involving generic characters. The research used two questionnaires: the sociodemographic questionnaire and the questionnaire on the interference of admiration in judgments about causing harm, applied to 63 adolescents aged between 12 and 18 years old. A coding system was developed based on the participants' responses, guided by the principles of Social Domain Theory, going through a rigorous process of dialogical reliability between researchers specialized in the subject. This coding system resulted in the following analysis categories: moral concern (justice, empathy, differences, and moral intervention), conventional concern (social expectation, legislation, religion, parental authority, and conventional intervention), concern with the situation (situational) and in others (it depends, and without justification). Additionally, a quantitative analysis was conducted using the method of dialogical reliability to map the presence of the five criteria of the moral domain: concern for others, adherence to the rule, generalization of the rule, independence from authority, and universalization of the rule, aiming to determine which elements hindered or facilitated the categorization of responses within the moral domain. The comparison between judgments involving generic characters and idols was conducted using the Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests to ascertain the presence of significant differences between the judgments. The results indicated that admiration did not interfere with judgments in three of the four situations (accidental harm, psychological harm, and benefit), suggesting that the majority of adolescents judged situations with justifications that did not consider concern for causing harm to others. Further research needs to be conducted to investigate why there are few moral responses in judgments about different situations involving harm.

The influence of empathy on food allergy training effectiveness: An experimental study with foodservice employees in the U.S.

This study aimed to examine the effects of empathy intervention on food allergy training through a between-subjects factorial experiment. A total of 388 foodservice employees participated, with half randomly assigned to the control group and half to the intervention group. Participants in the intervention group were shown a video describing a food allergy death to elicit empathic responses. Results showed that the intervention video elicited higher empathic responses toward food allergy victims among foodservice employees than those in the control group. Empathic responses positively related to post-training food allergy knowledge acquisition and practices. Emotional attachment and attitude towards food allergy training mediated the relationships between empathic responses and post-training knowledge acquisition and post-training practices. Meanwhile, prosocial motivations moderated the indirect effects of empathy intervention on post-training food allergy knowledge acquisition and food allegory practices through empathic response and emotional attachment/attitude towards the training. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Effects of an empathy enhancement program using patient stories on attitudes and stigma toward mental illness among nursing students.

This study aims to explore the impact of an empathy intervention through patients' stories and investigate its impact on attitudes and stigma toward mental illness among nursing students prone to hold prejudices against this condition. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design, this study focused on nursing students and examined the effects of an empathy enhancement program targeting individuals with mental illnesses on communication, social distance, and prejudice. Ninety third-year nursing students from S and C cities and H and C universities enrolled in psychiatric nursing courses participated in the study. The intervention lasted 4 weeks and used the patient's story to facilitate a participatory approach to understanding the patient's life and encouraging mutual growth and expansion of consciousness in the therapeutic relationship. Age was treated as a covariate and analyzed using a two-way repeated-measure analysis of covariance. The Empathy Enhancement Program Using Patient Stories (EEP-PS) group and the clinical practicum group showed no significant differences in communication, social distance, and empathy scores between the two groups or across different time points. However, variations were observed when examining specific subdomains within each group and across time points. Informative communication (F = 10.34, p = 0.002) and affiliative communication (F = 21.60, p < 0.001), which are subcategories of communication, increased significantly in the posttest compared to the pretest. Among social distances, interpersonal-physical distance decreased significantly in the posttest compared to the pretest (F = 31.02, p < 0.001). Prejudice of incompetence (F = 6.52, p = 0.012) and prejudice of risk (F = 14.37, p < 0.001) were significantly lower in the posttest than in the pretest. Both the EEP-PS and clinical practicum groups experienced improvements in communication, social distance, and prejudice toward individuals with mental illness. This study suggests that direct patient interactions and the use of patient narratives as indirect methods are effective approaches for enhancing attitudes and reducing stigma toward mental illness among nursing students.

A brief induction of loving kindness meditation to reduce anti-fat bias.

Weight stigma is highly prevalent. However, existing weight stigma interventions are only modestly effective at reducing anti-fat attitudes. The current research proposes a novel approach using a loving kindness meditation (LKM). Experiment 1 tests whether random assignment to the LKM intervention reduces explicit and implicit anti-fat bias and increases empathy based on the LKM recipient with higher weight (close other vs. stranger). Experiment 2 tests whether LKM outperforms an empathy intervention or control to increase empathy or reduce stigmatizing behavior. Results revealed that the LKM increased empathic care but did not reduce anti-fat bias compared to control; the LKM intervention, but not the empathy intervention, reported greater empathy compared to control in unadjusted analyses; and participants in the LKM and empathy interventions (vs. control) were more likely to engage in stigmatizing behavior. These findings suggest that the LKM may not be effective at reducing weight stigma despite increasing empathy.

PELATIHAN PSIKOEDUKASI BYSTANDER INTERVENTION PROGRAM: MAMPUKAH MENJADI SALAH SATU UPAYA PENCEGAHAN KEKERASAN SEKSUAL YANG EFEKTIF DI LINGKUNGAN KAMPUS?

Sexual violence in Indonesia is one of the biggest problems that must be overcome immediately, especially in the campus environment. One of the attempts that can be conducted is to afford bystander intervention programs in psychoeducation training form. This study determines the effectiveness of the bystander intervention program called Do Something to reduce rape myth acceptance and increase empathy, assertiveness, and bystander intervention behavior. This research used a within-subjects design with four times measurements (before and after the first intervention, after the second intervention, and after two weeks of follow-up). The research participants were 14 students of Indonesia University of Education aged 18-25 years who had never participated in psychoeducation activities on sexual violence. The measuring instruments used in this study consisted of 4 measuring instruments, namely Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale – Subtle Version (IRMA-S), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), Functional Assertiveness Scale (FAS), dan Bystander Intervention Behavior Scale (BIBS). The results of the study showed that the Do Something 'bystander intervention program' was successful in having short-term effectiveness in women in reducing rape myth acceptance, increasing assertiveness, and bystander intervention behavior. It is expected that this program would be beneficial training in preventing sexual violence in the campus environment.

Testing Causal Effects of Empathy on Children's Prosociality in Politeness Dilemmas - An Intervention Study.

Empathy is commonly considered a driver of prosociality in child ontogeny, but causal assumptions regarding this effect mostly rely on correlational research designs. Here, 96 urban German children (5-8 years; 48 girls; predominantly White; from mid-to-high socioeconomic backgrounds) participated in an empathy intervention or a control condition before prosocial behaviors (polite lie-telling: rating the drawing as good; prosocial encouragement: utterances interpreted as cheering up the artist) were assessed in an art-rating task. Contrasting children's empathy at baseline with their empathy after the intervention indicated promoted empathy compared to the control group. Despite the intervention's effect on children's empathy, there were no simultaneous changes in prosocial behaviors. At the same time, children's empathy at baseline was associated with their prosocial encouragement. These results indicate conceptual associations between children's empathy and prosociality. However, they do not support strict causal claims regarding this association in middle childhood. Further applications of the novel short-time intervention to address causal effects of empathy on prosociality and other developmental outcomes are discussed.

Dimensions of Empathy and Bystander Intervention Action in Bullying Across Age

ABSTRACT This study aimed to extend the literature by examining how bystander intervention (i.e. when a witness to a bullying episodes does something to address the situation) varies with respect to the type of bystander intervention (i.e. direct intervention, emotional intervention, involving an adult, ignore) across victim status (friend, unknown), intervener age (elementary, high school), and dimensions of empathy (affective, cognitive) in the intervener. Given substantive differences in both empathy (especially cognitive empathy) and bystander intervention when comparing children to older adolescents, the association between empathy and intervening may differ across age groups. Self-report survey data were collected from 370 racially diverse participants in grades 3–5 ; (n = 158) and grades 9–12 (n = 212) in the southeastern area of the United States. Multi-group path analysis was conducted. Results varied by intervener age, type of intervention, and type of empathy. Affective empathy for high school students was not related to intervention at all, but affective empathy for elementary students was related to emotional intervention. For both age groups, cognitive empathy was related to emotional intervention and reporting to adults for all unknown victims, as well as for known victims in high school students. For known victims, no clear pattern emerged for age groups and how empathy was associated with each type of intervention. Overall, the findings suggest that bystander intervention in bullying is not a “one size fits all” behavior. Bystander intervention programs for bullying should provide more nuanced training regarding types of interventions and encourage empathy and action for both known and unknown victims.

Concerns about counseling racial minority clients: Ethnocultural empathy, insight, and multicultural intervention self-efficacy.

Concerns about counseling racial minority clients: Ethnocultural empathy, insight, and multicultural intervention self-efficacy.

Consistency Analysis in Medical Empathy Intervention Research.

Various studies have examined the effectiveness of interventions to increase empathy in medical professionals. However, inconsistencies may exist in the definitions, interventions, and assessments of empathy. Inconsistencies jeopardize the internal validity and generalization of the research findings. The main purpose of this study was to examine the internal consistency among the definitions, interventions, and assessments of empathy in medical empathy intervention studies. We also examined the interventions and assessments in terms of the knowledge–attitude–behavior aspects. We conducted a literature search for medical empathy intervention studies with a design of randomized controlled trials and categorized each study according to the dimensions of empathy and knowledge–attitude–behavior aspects. The consistencies among the definitions, interventions, and assessments were calculated. A total of 13 studies were included in this study. No studies were fully consistent in their definitions, interventions, and assessments of empathy. Only four studies were partially consistent. In terms of knowledge–attitude–behavior aspects, four studies were fully consistent, two studies were partially consistent, and seven studies were inconsistent. Most medical empathy intervention studies are inconsistent in their definitions, interventions, and assessments of empathy, as well as the knowledge–attitude–behavior aspects between interventions and assessments. These inconsistencies may have affected the internal validity and generalization of the research results.

The empathy factor: The role of empathy in knowledge, attitude, and practice of organ donation in India - A crossectional, observational study

Background: Due to the scarcity of organs available for transplantation, several patients lose their lives each year. Increased awareness and positive attitudes alone may be insufficient to increase an individual's willingness to donate (i.e., the basic tenets of the knowledge-attitude-practice/KAP model). Therefore, it is pertinent to examine other psychological determinants that are associated with engaging in the altruistic/prosocial act of organ donation. Objective: To understand the association between empathy and KAP of organ donation in an Indian population. This pilot is the precursor to a larger project which aims to develop and test an empathy intervention to promote organ donation. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, Indians (N = 419; female = 261; mean age = 28.48 years) aged 18 years and above were recruited using convenience sampling through an online survey. Questionnaires included the Awareness, Attitudes, and Practice of Organ Donation (Chakradhar et al., 2016) and Empathy Quotient-8 (Loewen et al., 2010). Multiple regression analyses were carried out to analyze the data. Results: Results showed that empathy was related to: (i) Total KAP (β = 0.123, P = 0.014), and (ii) attitudes (β = 0.195, P < 0.001) towards organ donation. Conclusion: These pilot study findings indicate that public health messages focused on evoking empathy can use the technique of patient/donor narratives, and training clinicians on empathic communication skills can help increase individuals' KAP of organ donation. Further, this pilot elucidated the need to conduct mixed-method studies with a donor and nondonor population and clinicians prior to developing and testing a larger empathy-centered intervention aimed at promoting the KAP of organ donation.

The Effect of the Mixed Empathy and Anger Management Intervention on Loneliness, Emotional Autonomy and Responsiveness to Stress in Divorce Students

The Effect of the Mixed Empathy and Anger Management Intervention on Loneliness, Emotional Autonomy and Responsiveness to Stress in Divorce Students

The Theories of the Development of Students: A Factor to Shape Teacher Empathy From the Perspective of Motivation.

Empathy represents an essential prerequisite for developing effective interpersonal behavior and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Education is a result of teacher-student interaction, and, therefore, it is worth noting that teaching empathy is critical for the development of students and the professional growth of teachers. Recently, researchers began to explore the influential factors of empathy (e.g., empathic mindsets) based on motivation. Beyond their empathic attitudes, teachers also have a mindset toward the development of students. A survey study was adopted to explore the relationship between the theories of the growth of students and teacher empathy. Four hundred and eighty-four Chinese teachers completed the student development scale, the teacher empathic motivation scale, and the teacher empathy scale. The mediation model results showed that the theories of the development of students could significantly predict teacher empathy and teacher empathic motivation. The teacher empathic motivation mediated the positive relationship between the theories of the development of students and teacher empathy. This study proposes a new concept and method for teacher empathy intervention in future.

Reflective political reasoning: Political disagreement and empathy

AbstractAs political polarization increases across many of the world's established democracies, many citizens are unwilling to appreciate and consider the viewpoints of those who disagree with them. Previous research shows that this lack of reflection can undermine democratic accountability. The purpose of this paper is to study whether empathy for the other can motivate people to reason reflectively about politics. Extant studies have largely studied trait‐level differences in the ability and inclination of individuals to engage in reflection. Most of these studies focus on observational moderators, which makes it difficult to make strong claims about the effects of being in a reflective state on political decision making. We extend this research by using a survey experiment with a large and heterogeneous sample of UK citizens (N = 2014) to investigate whether a simple empathy intervention can induce people to consider opposing viewpoints and incorporate those views in their opinion about a pressing political issue. We find that actively imagining the feelings and thoughts of someone one disagrees with prompts more reflection in the way that people reason about political issues as well as elicits empathic feelings of concern towards those with opposing viewpoints. We further examine whether empathy facilitates openness to attitude change in the counter‐attitudinal direction and find that exposure to an opposing perspective (without its empathy component) per se is enough to prompt attitude change. Our study paints a more nuanced picture of the relationship between empathy, reflection and policy attitudes.

Response of salivary biomarkers to an empathy triggering film sequence\u2014a pilot study

Empathy is a multifaceted phenomenon that is difficult to measure. Self-report questionnaires are the most common and well-validated measures while currently no validated protein biomarkers associated with the empathic reaction have been established. Trigger films have been previously used in psychological research to evoke emotions. Thus, in the present randomized cross-over study we investigated the responses of nine salivary biomarkers that have been related to emotions and stress following an empathy triggering and a control film sequence. Additionally, questionnaires for empathy (Saarbrucken Personality Questionnaire (SPQ)) and current mental stress were applied and participants were asked to assess the film protagonists’ emotions using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. Data from 46 participants were included in the analysis. α-Amylase, IgA, IL-1β and estradiol showed a significantly different response between the empathy and control intervention. Moreover, normalized levels of these biomarkers significantly correlated with single scales of the SPQ (control film sequence: α-amylase and IgA with personal distress; estradiol with empathic concern; IL-1β with fantasy; empathy triggering film sequence: IgA with empathic concern, fantasy and the total empathy score). These findings indicated that the observed changes in salivary biomarker levels were reflective of a physiological response to the empathy triggering film sequence. Future studies using different triggers and settings will show if the identified biomarkers can be considered as surrogate markers for empathic reactions in general.

Virtual reality improves emotional but not cognitive empathy: A meta-analysis.

Virtual Reality (VR) has been touted as an effective empathy intervention, with its most ardent supporters claiming it is “the ultimate empathy machine.” We aimed to determine whether VR deserves this reputation, using a random-effects meta-analysis of all known studies that examined the effect of virtual reality experiences on users’ empathy (k = 43 studies, with 5,644 participants). The results indicated that many different kinds of VR experiences can increase empathy, however, there are important boundary conditions to this effect. Subgroup analyses revealed that VR improved emotional empathy, but not cognitive empathy. In other words, VR can arouse compassionate feelings but does not appear to encourage users to imagine other peoples’ perspectives. Further subgroup analyses revealed that VR was no more effective at increasing empathy than less technologically advanced empathy interventions such as reading about others and imagining their experiences. Finally, more immersive and interactive VR experiences were no more effective at arousing empathy than less expensive VR experiences such as cardboard headsets. Our results converge with existing research suggesting that different mechanisms underlie cognitive versus emotional empathy. It appears that emotional empathy can be aroused automatically when witnessing evocative stimuli in VR, but cognitive empathy may require more effortful engagement, such as using one’s own imagination to construct others’ experiences. Our results have important practical implications for nonprofits, policymakers, and practitioners who are considering using VR for prosocial purposes. In addition, we recommend that VR designers develop experiences that challenge people to engage in empathic effort.

Variability of empathy among dental students. Implications not yet understood in Latin America

Introduction: Empathy is a quality that allows dentists to build an intersubjective relationship with their patients, which, among other benefits, contributes to the effectiveness of the treatment. Objective: To determine whether there is variability in empathy levels between two populations of dental students and to describe theoretically the general implications of this variability for intervention strategies. Materials and methods: Exploratory cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of 1st-5th year dental students from the Universidad Santiago de Cali, Colombia (n=610; N=647) and the Universidad San Sebastián, Chile (n=535; N=800). In both groups, empathy was measured using the Jefferson Scale of Empathy (S-Version) Scale. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) were used for data analysis. Internal consistency of data was estimated using Cronbach's alpha and the intraclass correlation coefficient. A factorial analysis of variance was performed, and three factors were studied: University (U), Course (C), and Sex (S). The statistical significance level used was α&lt;0.05 and β≤0.20. Results: Differences in empathy level and in some of its three dimensions were observed between students from both universities and among courses (1st-5th year). No differences were found between sexes. Conclusions: There is variability in empathy levels among dental students from both universities. Thus, the implementation of specific empathy intervention strategies in each dental medicine program offered in Latin America is required to increase empathy levels in this population.

The Effectiveness of Teaching Clinical Empathy to Medical Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Clinical empathy is a necessary trait to provide effective patient care, despite differences in how it is defined and constructed. The aim of this study was to examine whether empathy interventions in medical students are effective and how confounding factors potentially moderate this effect. The authors performed a systematic review and meta-analysis. They searched the literature published between 1948 and 2018 for randomized controlled trials that examined empathy interventions in medical students. The search (database searching, citation tracking, hand-searching relevant journals) yielded 380 studies, which they culled to 16 that met the inclusion criteria. For the meta-analysis, they used a random effects model to produce a pooled estimate of the standardized mean difference (SMD), then completed subgroup analyses. The authors found evidence of the possibility of response and reporting bias. The pooled SMD was 0.68 (95% confidence interval 0.43, 0.93), indicating a moderately positive effect of students developing empathy after an intervention compared with those in the control groups. There was no evidence of publication bias, but heterogeneity was significantly high (I = 88.5%, P < .01). Subgroup analyses indicated that significant moderating factors for developing empathy were age, country, scope of empathy measurement, type of empathy intervention, and presence of rehearsal. Moderating factors with limited evidence were sex, study quality, journal impact factor, and intervention characteristics. Despite heterogeneity and biases, empathy interventions in medical students are effective. These findings reinforce arguments in the literature and add considerable rigor from the meta-analysis. The authors propose a conceptual model for educators to follow when designing empathy interventions in medical students.

Dimensions of empathy and bystander intervention in bullying in elementary school

The current study investigated associations among cognitive empathy, affective empathy, internalizing problems, and the five steps of the bystander intervention model (notice bullying events, interpret as an event requiring intervention, accept responsibility for intervening, know how to intervene, and act). Participants included 336 fourth and fifth grade students (58.9% boys) at a school in the Midwest region of the United States. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that greater cognitive empathy was related to noticing bullying events, accepting responsibility to intervene, and knowing how to intervene. Affective empathy was significantly related to the actual act of intervention. Further, significant interactions revealed that affective empathy was positively associated with interpreting bullying as an event that required intervention at low and moderate levels of internalizing problems, but not at high levels of internalizing problems. Overall these findings underscore the need to examine the decision to intervene as the culmination of a series of steps as outlined in the bystander intervention model, with each step potentially influenced by a unique set of precursors.

Cognitive/Affective Empathy, Pro-Bullying Beliefs, and Willingness to Intervene on Behalf of a Bullied Peer

The purpose of this study was to determine whether pro-bullying attitudes mediate the relation between affective and cognitive empathy and a student’s willingness to intervene in support of a bullied peer. Participants were 764 early adolescents (372 boys, 392 girls) from the Illinois Study of Bullying and Sexual Violence (ISBSV). As predicted, pro-bullying attitudes successfully mediated the prospective relation between affective empathy and bystander intervention but failed to mediate the relation between cognitive empathy and bystander intervention. These results indicate that affective empathy may promote bystander willingness to intervene on behalf of a bullied peer by inhibiting pro-bullying attitudes. Intervention strategies designed to enhance affective empathy and challenge pro-bullying attitudes in bystanders may be of assistance in reducing bullying behavior.

The effects of empathy, perceived injustice and group identity on altruistic preferences: Towards compensation or punishment

AbstractPrevious research supports that both empathic concern and perspective‐taking are predictors of altruistic behaviours in dictator games. Less is known, however, about how the identity of the victim and the perpetrator and the strength of ingroup identity of the observer in such games impacts upon preferences for altruistic compensation and punishment. Focusing on gender identity, the present research aimed to examine the effects of empathy, perceived injustice and ingroup identity strength on preferences for altruistic compensation and punishment. Female adult participants (n = 116) were recruited through an online survey conducted in the United Kingdom. Using a dictator‐style game, participants were randomly assigned to observe either a male or female distributing resources to a female victim, after which they were asked to rate their feelings of injustice and then completed a series of measures including empathic concern, perspective‐taking and strength of gender identity. Results demonstrate that empathic concern and perspective‐taking predicted third‐party altruistic preferences but there was no effect of experimental condition (perpetrator identity). Results have implications for promoting perspective‐taking‐focused empathy intervention in occasions where distributive inequality or intergroup bias frequently occurs. These are also the insight to female’s awareness of gender equality and a novel enforce of norm violations.