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The effect of helping decision on the level of empathy concern and attention to victim's information
Author(s)
Date Issued
2013
Publisher
Hong Kong: Hong Kong Shue Yan University
Description
Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.) -- Hong Kong Shue Yan University, 2013.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-54).
76 p.
Type
Thesis
Programme
Master of Social Sciences in Counselling Psychology
Abstract
The current research investigated the effect of helping decision on empathy concern.
According to the theory of cognitive dissonance Festingered (1987), if people’s behavior is
inconsistent with his cognition, they would modify their cognition to reduce the dissonance.
Based on that theory, when people decide not to help, they would feel dissonance if they feel
high level of empathy concern toward the victim; but, if they decide to help, this would be
discrepant if they feel low empathy concern to the victims. To reduce the dissonance, this
researcher hypothesized that people would modify their interpretation of the victim’s
suffering, thus affecting the level of empathy concern.
Besides, the researcher hypothesized that people would pay more attention to the victim’s information if they are decided to help, than those decided not to help. The rationale is that people tend to seek for more information if the issue is relevant to them; and based on the selective exposure theory, people tend to seek for information to support their standpoint.
Two studies were conducted to investigate the above hypotheses. In study one, the decision of helping was primed by the cost of the suggested helping behavior; in study two, the decision of helping was manipulated by the actual helping behaviors of the participants.
The result indicated that participants’ decision of helping would not affect their empathy concern. This implicated that the participants could reduce the dissonance by holding other beliefs, such as diffusion of responsibility (Wiesenthal, Austrom, and Silverman, 1983), rather than devaluating the suffering of the victims. Regarding the second hypothesis, the result indicated that the participants who did not provide help paid more attention than the participants who had provided help. The cognitive economic model (Fisher, 2011) was adopted to explain the phenomenon. Participants’ attention might be affected by the certainty of their standpoint.
Besides, the researcher hypothesized that people would pay more attention to the victim’s information if they are decided to help, than those decided not to help. The rationale is that people tend to seek for more information if the issue is relevant to them; and based on the selective exposure theory, people tend to seek for information to support their standpoint.
Two studies were conducted to investigate the above hypotheses. In study one, the decision of helping was primed by the cost of the suggested helping behavior; in study two, the decision of helping was manipulated by the actual helping behaviors of the participants.
The result indicated that participants’ decision of helping would not affect their empathy concern. This implicated that the participants could reduce the dissonance by holding other beliefs, such as diffusion of responsibility (Wiesenthal, Austrom, and Silverman, 1983), rather than devaluating the suffering of the victims. Regarding the second hypothesis, the result indicated that the participants who did not provide help paid more attention than the participants who had provided help. The cognitive economic model (Fisher, 2011) was adopted to explain the phenomenon. Participants’ attention might be affected by the certainty of their standpoint.
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