Situated Empathy: Variations Associated With Target Gender Across Situations

Abstract

The aim of this study is to present a situated measure of empathy where person features such as gender of target and respondent vary within particular social contexts. The Empathy Situation Reaction Scale (ESRS; Manulik, Kelley, White, & Staats, 2004) has good psychometric properties for three different types of situations. Situations were associated with a much larger empathy effect size than gender of respondent. Gender differences on the ESRS were situation dependent, with women reporting more empathy in the social or threat situations than did men but not in situations where the target accidentally caused property damage or loss. The ESRS may be used to assess empathy in complex interactions of situation, target and respondent and provides a model for studying complex social situations.

Adolescence, Empathy, and the Gender Gap in Delinquency

“…Given previous findings that empathy is negatively associated with antisocial behavior (Johnson & Ferraro, 2000;Staats et al, 2006;Walker, 2009), I expect that as empathic ability decreases, delinquency will increase. I assume this will hold true for both boys and girls, but test for an interaction between gender and empathy to determine whether gender moderates the empathy/delinquency relationship as found by Broidy et al (2003).…”

An Experimental Study on the Variation of the Attitudes towards the Syrian Refugees in Turkey

“…Therefore, instead of capturing an affective or cognitive aspect of empathy, we pursue to evoke both sides in the treatment text. Furthermore, in respect to person-situation schism, empathy can be an individual level disposition, which is relatively stable as a life-long trait, (e.g., Davis, 1983;Eisenberg, 1991 and something changeable depending on particular situations (e.g., Batson, 1991;Staats et al, 2006). In the current research, we experimentally elicit empathy by framing the case; and therefore, the empathy treatment grounds on the situational aspect.…”